Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.
Paul Theroux

Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.
Paul Theroux

Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.
Paul Theroux

Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing.
Paul Theroux

Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.
Paul Theroux

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.
Paul Theroux

It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.
Paul Theroux

The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.
Paul Theroux

The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.
Paul Theroux

The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson's on the main drag into maturity.
Paul Theroux


There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.
Paul Theroux

Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.
Paul Theroux

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.
Paul Theroux

Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.
Paul Theroux

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.
Paul Theroux