Paul Theroux Quotes

Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux
American Novelist
Born: Apr 10, 1941
Life Me People Think Travel You
Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach
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
You Travel People Sense Think Books Would Trip Writer Take Never Never Take Read Reader Because Doing Intend Either
Africa is really a place for the wealthy traveler. It's got some nice hotels, but they're very expensive hotels. It doesn't really cater to the backpacker or to the overland traveler. Paul Theroux
Nice Wealthy Some Hotels Cater Got Very Expensive Africa Place Really Traveler
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
Me States See Most Lot Place Realized Much Interests Traveled United United States Actually
The Trans-Siberian Express is like a cruise across an oceanic landscape. I've done it three times. Paul Theroux
Three Cruise Like Times Done Across Landscape Express
Writing was in my mind from the time I was in high school, but more, the idea that I would be a doctor. I really wanted to be a medical doctor, and I had various schemes: one was to be a psychiatrist, another was tropical medicine. Paul Theroux
Time Writing Doctor School Mind Medicine High Would Would-Be High School More Various Tropical Schemes Had Idea Another Psychiatrist Wanted Really Medical
My earliest thought, long before I was in high school, was just to go away, get out of my house, get out of my city. I went to Medford High School, but even in grade school and junior high, I fantasized about leaving. Paul Theroux
School Thought Long Go Away Before Out High City High School About House Leaving Go Junior Junior High Get Grade Grade School Just Even Away Earliest
I've never spent a whole year in one place without leaving. Paul Theroux
Year Spent Never Without Leaving Place Whole
People see a hungry face, and they want to feed it; that's a natural response. Paul Theroux
Natural People Face Hungry Response See Feed Want
Maine out of season is unmistakably a great destination: hospitable, good-humored, plenty of elbow room, short days, dark nights of crackling ice crystals. Paul Theroux
Great Destination Dark Nights Plenty Out Maine Days Crystals Short Ice Elbow Room Season
Japan, Germany, and India seem to me to have serious writers, readers, and book buyers, but the Netherlands has struck me as the most robust literary culture in the world. Paul Theroux
Me Culture Book World India Seem Netherlands Struck Writers Most Readers Robust Germany Literary Japan Serious Buyers
I should start by saying that traveling in the States is a bit like traveling in Asia. You need it, it helps to have an introduction - that there is a certain network. Paul Theroux
Saying You States Bit Introduction Network Like Asia Certain Should Helps Traveling Start Need
Everything is fiction. You only have your own life to work with in the way that a biographer only has the letters and journals to work with. Paul Theroux
Life Work You Own Everything Way Only Journals Fiction Your Letters
My love for traveling to islands amounts to a pathological condition known as nesomania, an obsession with islands. This craze seems reasonable to me, because islands are small self-contained worlds that can help us understand larger ones. Paul Theroux
Love Me Worlds Seems Small Self-Contained Obsession Known Because Understand Islands Condition Pathological Us Help Reasonable Traveling Larger Amount
Because of my capacity for listening to strangers' tales, or the details of their lives, my patience with their food and their crotchets, my curiosity that borders on nosiness, I am told that anyone traveling with me experiences an unbelievable tedium, and this is why I choose to travel alone. Paul Theroux
Alone Food Me Patience Travel Listening Strangers Details Borders Unbelievable Tales Because Am Curiosity Experiences Anyone Capacity Choose Traveling Why Lives Tedium
Nyasaland was the perfect country for a volunteer. It was friendly and destitute; it was small and out-of-the-way. It had all of Africa's problems - poverty, ignorance, disease. Paul Theroux
Ignorance Problems Poverty Country Destitute Small Perfect Had Volunteer Friendly Disease Africa
I have always felt that the truth is prophetic, and that if you describe precisely what you see and give it life with your imagination, then what you write ought to have lasting value, no matter what the mood of your prose. Paul Theroux
Life Truth You Truth Is Matter Value Imagination Lasting Ought Mood See Give Prophetic Write Prose Felt Always Precisely Then Your Describe
I believe I have a sunny disposition, and am not naturally a grouch. It takes a lot of optimism, after all, to be a traveler. Paul Theroux
Believe Disposition Sunny Takes Am Lot Optimism After Grouch Naturally Traveler
The job of the travel writer is to go far and wide, to make voluminous notes, to tell the truth. Paul Theroux
Truth Travel Job Tell Writer Make Go Notes Far Far And Wide Wide
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