Paul Theroux Quotes

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

Reputation, Asked, Gain

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

Travel, Good, Food

Friendship is also about liking a person for their failings, their weakness. It's also about mutual help, not about exploitation.
Paul Theroux

Friendship, Help, Person

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

Life, Chance, Second

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

Travel, Tourists, Travelers

I am happy being what I am.
Paul Theroux

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

Cannot, Days, Longer

I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely.
Paul Theroux

Lonely, Idea, Solitude

I think I understand passion. Love is something else.
Paul Theroux

Love, Passion, Understand

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

Book, Etiquette, Australian

A novel captures essence that is not possible in any other form.
Paul Theroux

Possible, Novel, Essence

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

Travel, Mind, Feeling

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

Mind, State, Grace

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

Good, Manners, Rudeness

The people of Hong Kong are criticized for only being interested in business, but it's the only thing they've been allowed to do.
Paul Theroux

Business, Interested, Criticized

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

Life, Love, Art

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

Rock, Moment, Star

Although I'm not fluent in sign language by a long way, I could have a fairly decent conversation.
Paul Theroux

Long, Language, Sign

Fiction gives us the second chances that life denies us.
Paul Theroux

Life, Second, Fiction

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 time waster.
Paul Theroux

Time, Person, Serious

I think that love isn't what you think it is when you're in your twenties or even thirties.
Paul Theroux

Love, Twenties, Thirties

I'm constantly running across people who have never heard of books I think they should read.
Paul Theroux

Read, Books, Heard

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, I don't think.
Paul Theroux

Home, Stay, Writers

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

Lonely, Expensive, Principled

It's only when you're alone that you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on except your own resources.
Paul Theroux

Alone, Nothing, Realize

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Biography

Nationality: American

Born: April 10, 1941

Links

Find on Amazon: Paul Theroux

Cite this Page: Citation

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