Paul Theroux ,quotes

I wanted the Peace Corps to b...

I wanted the Peace Corps to be something very vague and unorganized, and to a large extent it was. It did not run smoothly. The consequence was that we were left alone.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

A travel book is about someon...

A travel book is about someone who goes somewhere, travels on the ground, sees something and spends quite a lot of time doing it, and has a hard time, and then comes back and writes about it. It's not about inventing.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

Travel magazines are just one...

Travel magazines are just one cupcake after another. They're not about travel. The travel magazine is, in fact, about the opposite of travel. It's about having a nice time on a honeymoon, or whatever.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

Death is an endless night so ...

Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, A...

Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Albert Camus, Graham Greene - they influenced my life to a profound extent.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

Men in their late 50s often m...

Men in their late 50s often make very bad decisions.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

The impulse to write comes, I...

The impulse to write comes, I think, from a desire - perhaps a need - to give imaginative life to experience, to share it with the reader, not to cover up the truth but to deliver it obliquely.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

I loathe blogs when I look at...

I loathe blogs when I look at them. Blogs look, to me, illiterate. They look hasty, like someone babbling.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

I grew up in an era of thinki...

I grew up in an era of thinking of travel as escape. The idea that you could conceivably have a new life, go somewhere, fall in love, have little children under the palm trees.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

The place that interests me m...

The place that interests me most, actually, is the United States. I've realized that I haven't traveled much in the States. There's a lot to see.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

I think there is only one way...

I think there is only one way to write fiction - alone, in a room, without interruption or any distraction.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

I think people read travel bo...

I think people read travel books either because they intend to take that trip, or because they would never take that trip. In a sense, as a writer you are doing the travel for the reader.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

People talk about the pain of...

People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

Anything is possible on a tra...

Anything is possible on a train: a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night's sleep, and strangers' monologues framed like Russian short stories.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

A journey awakens all our old...

A journey awakens all our old fears of danger and risk. Your life is on the line. You are living by your own resources; you have to find your own way and solve every problem on the road.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

Literary life used to be quit...

Literary life used to be quite different in Britain in the years I lived there, from 1971 to 1989, because money was not a factor - no one made very much except from U.S. sales and the occasional windfall.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

You may not know it but I'm n...

You may not know it but I'm no good at coping with all the attention in the luxury hotels I sometimes find myself in.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

A travel book is a book that ...

A travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler, and it's usually a book about having a very bad time; having a miserable time, even better.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

If you're a misanthrope you s...

If you're a misanthrope you stay at home. There are certain writers who really don't like other people. I'm not like that, I don't think.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

Dentists seem to me very orde...

Dentists seem to me very orderly, businesslike people who appear to become somewhat bored with the routine of their work after a period of time. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Paul Theroux 10.08.2025 21:15:55 202 quotes

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