I am happy being what I am.

Paul Theroux Quotes

American - Novelist Born: April 10, 1941

I am happy being what I am. Paul Theroux

Happy, I Am, I Am Happy

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

Mind, Grace, Hawaii

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. - Paul Theroux

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. Paul Theroux

Winter, Recovery, Season

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

Travel, Been, Going

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

Help, Liking, Exploitation

I believe I have a sunny disposition, and am not naturally a grouch. It takes a lot of optimism, after all, to be a traveler. Paul Theroux

Optimism, Believe, Traveler

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

Better, Strive, Longer

The moment that changed me for ever was the moment my first child was born. I was happy, filled with hope, and thought, 'Now I understand the whole point of work, of life, of love.' Paul Theroux

Love, Work, Thought

I don't look down on tourism. I live in Hawaii where we have 7 million visitors a year. If they weren't there, there would be no economy. So I understand why a tourist economy is necessary. Paul Theroux

Hawaii, Year, Necessary

There are two worlds: the world of the tourist and the world of everyone else. Often they're side by side. But the tourist doesn't actually see how people live. Paul Theroux

Side, Worlds, Everyone Else

Top 10
Paul Theroux
Quotes

When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call, but I wrote letters, I wrote short stories, I wrote books. Paul Theroux

Two, Years, Another

The travel impulse is mental and physical curiosity. It's a passion. And I can't understand people who don't want to travel. Paul Theroux

Curiosity, Want, Understand

You can't write about a friend, you can only write about a former friend. Paul Theroux

Friend, About, Only

What draws me in is that a trip is a leap in the dark. It's like a metaphor for life. You set off from home, and in the classic travel book, you go to an unknown place. You discover a different world, and you discover yourself. Paul Theroux

Life, Book, Different World

Maine is a joy in the summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in the winter. Paul Theroux

Soul, Joy, Maine

I grew up in an era of thinking of travel as escape. The idea that you could conceivably have a new life, go somewhere, fall in love, have little children under the palm trees. Paul Theroux

Love, New, Little Children

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

Never, Will, Asked

Many small towns I know in Maine are as tight-knit and interdependent as those I associate with rural communities in India or China; with deep roots and old loyalties, skeptical of authority, they are proud and inflexibly territorial. Paul Theroux

Deep, Small, Rural

People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble, they write about having to wait for a bus. They write about waiting. They write three pages about how long it took them to get a visa. I'm not interested in the boring parts. Everyone has tummy trouble. Everyone waits in line. I don't want to hear about it. Paul Theroux

Waiting, Wait, Bus

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

Chances, Second Chances

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, Grateful, Flight

I can't predict how reading habits will change. But I will say that the greatest loss is the paper archive - no more a great stack of manuscripts, letters, and notebooks from a writer's life, but only a tiny pile of disks, little plastic cookies where once were calligraphic marvels. Paul Theroux

Habits, Stack, Pile

Travel magazines are just one cupcake after another. They're not about travel. The travel magazine is, in fact, about the opposite of travel. It's about having a nice time on a honeymoon, or whatever. Paul Theroux

Fact, Having, Another

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

Love, Art, Death

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

Mind, Extensive, Traveling

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

Think, Read, I Think

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