I don't look down on tourism. I live in Hawaii where we have 7 million visitors a year. If they weren't there,… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
When I left Africa in 1966 it seemed to me to be a place that was developing, going in a particular direction,… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
In Turkey it was always 1952, in Malaysia 1937; Afghanistan was 1910 and Bolivia 1949. It is 20 years ago in the… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
For years I felt that being respectable meant maintaining a sinister complacency, and the disreputable freedom I sought helped make me a… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
Literary life used to be quite different in Britain in the years I lived there, from 1971 to 1989, because money was… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make a… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
My house is a place I have spent many years improving to the point where I have no desire to leave it. — 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
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
