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
The two impulses in travel are to get away from home, and the other is to pursue something - a landscape, people,… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Tightfisted people are as mean with friendship as they are with cash--suspicious, unbelieving, and incurious. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
The Colombians are good-tempered people. They are used to waiting for buses that are late, used to riding buses and trains that… — 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
People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
The people of Hong Kong are criticized for only being interested in business, but it's the only thing they've been allowed to… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
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
One of the upsides of tourism is that people begin to take themselves a little more seriously (and think their) culture is… — 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
The travel impulse is mental and physical curiosity. It's a passion. And I can't understand people who don't want to travel. — 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
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 gun show is about like-minded people who feel as if everything has been taken away from them - jobs, money, pride. — 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
You leave the States, and you see people have bigger problems than you, much worse problems than you. — 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
People see a hungry face, and they want to feed it; that's a natural response. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
You can't separate the people from the places - although I sometimes like traveling in places where there are no people. — 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 never stay with people and I never look people up when I travel. I depend more on just chance meetings. The… — 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
