Paul Theroux Quotes - BrainyQuote

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.

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

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. Paul Theroux

Winter, Season, Recovery

I am happy being what I am. Paul Theroux

Happy, I Am, I Am Happy

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

Still, Connected, Like

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

Grace, Mind, Hawaii

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

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

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

Better, Strive, Longer

If you look at a map, you see that Hawaii is in the middle of nowhere. It's 17 hours of straight flying from London. It's very far away, and sometimes you feel as if you're on another planet. But I like that. Also, that's ideal for writing. Paul Theroux

Away, London, Very

Top 10
Paul Theroux
Quotes

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

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

Travel, Going, Been

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

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

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

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

Will, Never, Asked

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

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

Chances, Second Chances

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, Bus, Wait

When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there. Paul Theroux

Hong Kong, Set, Wanted

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

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

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

The two impulses in travel are to get away from home, and the other is to pursue something - a landscape, people, an exotic place. Certainly finding a place that you like or discovering something unusual is a very sustaining thing in travel. Paul Theroux

Very, Sustaining, Certainly

I wanted the Peace Corps to be something very vague and unorganized, and to a large extent it was. It did not run smoothly. The consequence was that we were left alone. Paul Theroux

Very, Vague, Extent

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