There's books that are about places we will never go, and then there's books that inspire us to go. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I'm constantly running across people who have never heard of books I think they should read. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“The topography of literature, the fact in fiction,is one of my pleasures -- I mean, where the living road enters the pages… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Fiction writing, and the reading of it, and book buying, have always been the activities of a tiny minority of people, even… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
In the best travel books the word alone is implied on every exciting page, as subtle and ineradicable as a watermark. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Sometimes people read a book in order to not go on a trip. You read a book instead of going on the… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
A travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler, and it's usually a book about having… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Japan, Germany, and India seem to me to have serious writers, readers, and book buyers, but the Netherlands has struck me as… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
A travel book is about someone who goes somewhere, travels on the ground, sees something and spends quite a lot of time… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Unless there is a strong sense of place there is no travel writing, but it need not come from topographical description; dialogue… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Travel is about failure or overcoming obstacles, overcoming failures. When a traveler is having lots of good luck, that is not a… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make a… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Travel books are all sorts - some are autobiographies, some are about falling in love. Some are about having great meals, some… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Many aspects of the writing life have changed since I published my first book, in the 1960s. It is more corporate, more… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
What draws me in is that a trip is a leap in the dark. It's like a metaphor for life. You set… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Reading alters the appearance of a book. Once it has been read, it never looks the same again, and people leave their… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
A travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler, and it's usually a book about having… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
... Oceanic malaise. I never saw anyone reading anything more demanding than a comic book. I never heard any youth express an… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I feel as if my mission is to write, to see, to observe, and I feel lazy if I'm not reaching conclusions. I feel… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
The larger an English industry was, the more likely it was to go bankrupt, because the English were not naturally corporate people; they disliked… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
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 Copy Share
“sightseeing, an activity that delights the truly idle because it seems so much like scholarship, gawping and eavesdropping on antiquity, flattering oneself with the… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
Tourists who go to Africa have more of a traditional experience than Africans do. A tourist goes on safari; Africans don't. — Paul Theroux Copy Share
In a way, Che Guevara's fate was far worse than Simon Bolivar's. Guevara's collapse was complete: his intentions were forgotten, but his style was… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
Pain does not create a long-lasting memory, but the memory of luxury exerts itself for ever. — Paul Theroux Copy Share
The wish to disappear sends many travelers away. If you are thoroughly sick of being kept waiting at home or at work, travel is… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
To a lot of Africans, seeing an animal is a something of a rarity. So it's a paradox of this sort of parallel life.… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
