The worst thing that can happen to you in travel is having a gun pointed at you by a very young person.… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I was raised in a large family. The first reason for my travel was to get away from my family. I knew… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
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… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Movable type seemed magical to the monks who were illuminating manuscripts and copying texts. Certainly e-books seem magical to me. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
What strikes me about high-school reunions is the realization that these are people one has known one's whole life. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
The idea of traveling in Africa for me is based on going by road or train or bus or whatever and crossing… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
To me, writing is a considered act. It's something which is a great labor of thought and consideration. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I loathe blogs when I look at them. Blogs look, to me, illiterate. They look hasty, like someone babbling. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Because of my capacity for listening to strangers' tales, or the details of their lives, my patience with their food and their… — 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
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
Dentists seem to me very orderly, businesslike people who appear to become somewhat bored with the routine of their work after a… — 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
