Everything is fiction. You only have your own life to work with in the way that a biographer only has the letters… — 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
You need to be on your own so that you can meet people as you are, and as they are. — 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
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
I should start by saying that traveling in the States is a bit like traveling in Asia. You need it, it helps… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
The worst thing that can happen to you in travel is having a gun pointed at you by a very young person.… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
If you look at a map, you see that Hawaii is in the middle of nowhere. It's 17 hours of straight flying… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
A journey awakens all our old fears of danger and risk. Your life is on the line. You are living by your… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I have always felt that the truth is prophetic, and that if you describe precisely what you see and give it life… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I think people read travel books either because they intend to take that trip, or because they would never take that trip.… — 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
The idea of traveling in Africa for me is based on going by road or train or bus or whatever and crossing… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
What draws me in is that a trip is a leap in the dark. It's like a metaphor for life. You set… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
I grew up in an era of thinking of travel as escape. The idea that you could conceivably have a new life,… — Paul Theroux Copy Share Image
One of the things the 'Tao of Travel' shows is how unforthcoming most travel writers are, how most travelers are. They don't… — 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
The appeal of travel books is also the sense that you are different, an outsider, almost like the Robinson Crusoe or Christopher… — 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
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
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
“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
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
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
Pain does not create a long-lasting memory, but the memory of luxury exerts itself for ever. — Paul Theroux Copy Share
The wish to disappear sends many travelers away. If you are thoroughly sick of being kept waiting at home or at work, travel is… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
To a lot of Africans, seeing an animal is a something of a rarity. So it's a paradox of this sort of parallel life.… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the… — Paul Theroux Copy Share
