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
He regarded himself as an accomplished writer — a clear sign of madness in anyone. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
When I started writing, I did have some idealised notion of my dad as a writer. But I have less and less… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I know there are writers who feel unhappy with domesticity and who even manufacture domestic turmoil in order to have something to… — 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
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
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
When I write about my childhood I think, oh my God, how did I ever get from there to here? Not that… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Travel is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with existence or the exotic. It is almost always an inner… — 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 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
The pleasure a reader gets is often equal to the pleasure a writer is given. — 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
I think there is only one way to write fiction - alone, in a room, without interruption or any distraction. — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
When I'm writing, I like to travel alone. If you really want to find out about a place, you need to be… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Every country has the writers she requires and deserves, which is why Nicaragua, in two hundred years of literacy, has produced one… — 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 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
The job of the travel writer is to go far and wide, to make voluminous notes, to tell the truth. — 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
