The people I've known who've done great things of that type - you know, building hospitals, running schools - are very humble… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I hate vacations. I hate them. I have no fun on them. I get nothing done. People sit and relax, but I… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
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,… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Most travel, and certainly the rewarding kind, involves depending on the kindness of strangers, putting yourself into the hands of people you… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I said I didn't think it would be a collectivist state so much as a wilderness in which most people lived hand… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
The wish to disappear sends many travelers away. If you are thoroughly sick of being kept waiting at home or at work,… — 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
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
