I feel as if my mission is to write, to see, to observe, and I feel lazy if I'm not reaching conclusions.… — 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… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Fogeydom is the last bastion of the bore and reminiscence is its anthem. It is futile to want the old days back,… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
So far I had been travelling alone with my handbook and my Western Railway timetable: I was happiest finding my own way… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Writing was in my mind from the time I was in high school, but more, the idea that I would be a… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
The traveler's boast, sometimes couched as a complaint, is that of having been an eyewitness, and invariably this experience - shocking though… — 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
I don't think I've ever seen a person having a serious conversation on a cellphone. It's like a kiddie thing, a complete… — 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
“A slow feeling of gathering sadness as each familiar place flashes by the window and disappears and becomes part of the past.… — 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
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
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'm a tourist, a glorified tourist. I'm not doing it to have a good time or to lie in the sun. — 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
“And why was I still here? I felt I was killing time, especially in Russia, which, in spite of all the talk… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
The moment that changed me for ever was the moment my first child was born. I was happy, filled with hope, and… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Travel magazines are just one cupcake after another. They're not about travel. The travel magazine is, in fact, about the opposite of… — 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 added that it was no fun to grow old, but that the compensation for it was that time turned your mental… — 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
