I'm not pessimistic about Africa. The cities just seem big and hopeless. But there's still a great green heart where there's possibility.… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“just a short trip to any French territory in the Pacific is enough to convince even the most casual observer that the… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“And yet on that bench at Jacobacci, I was glad I had left everyone else behind. Although this was a town with… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“Most people on earth are poor. Most places are blighted and nothing will stop the blight getting worse. Travel gives you glimpses… — 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
You think of travellers as bold, but our guilty secret is that travel is one of the laziest ways on earth of… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Now and then in travel, something unexpected happens that transforms the whole nature of the trip and stays with the traveler. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“Nature is crooked. I wanted right angles and straight lines. Ice! Oh, why do they all drip? You cut yourself opening a… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“He used the word savages with affection, as if he liked them a little for it. In his nature was a respect… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail, knowing that everything you need… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“Why see death as a hangman when it is truer to see it as a harvester leveling the earth with its scythe?… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“You think of travelers as bold, but our guilty secret is that travel is one of the laziest ways on earth of… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
You can't write about a friend, you can only write about a former friend. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Pain does not create a long-lasting memory, but the memory of luxury exerts itself for ever. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image