# Quote — John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps

> “Man, I’ve often thought that an innkeeper would make the best story-teller in the world.”
>
> “Not now,” he said eagerly. “Maybe in the old days when you had pilgrims and ballad-makers and highwaymen and mail-coaches on the road. But not now. Nothing comes here but motor-cars full of fat women, who stop for lunch, and a fisherman or two in the spring, and the shooting tenants in August. There is not much material to be got out of that. I want to see life, to travel the world, and write things like Kipling and Conrad.

- Author: [John Buchan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan.md)
- Book: [The Thirty-Nine Steps](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/the-thirty-nine-steps.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Buchan#The_Thirty-Nine_Steps_(1915)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-buchan/the-thirty-nine-steps/man-ive-often