Paul Theroux Quotes - BrainyQuote

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

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. Paul Theroux

Preparation, Winter, Recovery, Season

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

Life, Work, Love, Hope, Happy, Child

I am happy being what I am. Paul Theroux

Happy, I Am, I Am Happy, Being, Am

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

Solitude, Lonely, Phone, You, Isolation

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, Home, Travel, Yourself, Book, Me

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

Life, Love, Children, Travel, Thinking

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

Soul, Joy, Summer, Winter, More, Maine

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, Passion, Death, Night

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, Weakness, Person, Also

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, I Believe, Sunny, Lot

Top 10
Paul Theroux
Quotes

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

Good, Manners, Good Manners, Made, Them

Japan, Germany, and India seem to me to have serious writers, readers, and book buyers, but the Netherlands has struck me as the most robust literary culture in the world. Paul Theroux

Culture, Book, World, Me, Serious, India

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

Mind, Grace, Hawaii, State

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

Reputation, You, Will, Never, Being

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

Peace, Short, Phone, Phone Call, Letters

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

Travel, Know, Going, Where, Been

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

Passion, Travel, Curiosity, People, Want

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, Roots, Proud, Small, Authority

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

Live, Look, Down, Hawaii, Why, Year

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

Better, Strive, Days, Cannot, Make, Them

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

Time, Travel, Nice, Honeymoon, Fact

Anything is possible on a train: a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night's sleep, and strangers' monologues framed like Russian short stories. Paul Theroux

Good, Great, Sleep, Short, Night, Train

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

Good, Food, Travel, Grateful, Flight, Up

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, People, Long, Trouble, Three

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, Fall, You, Back, Nothing, Realize

Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places. Paul Theroux

Great, Travel, Finding, Three, Say, Mark

Loading...

Load more quotes

Related Authors

Ernest Hemingway

H. P. Lovecraft

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Chuck Palahniuk

BrainyQuote

BrainyQuote Desktop

BrainyQuote Mobile

Site

Quote Of The Day

Social

BQ on Pinterest

BQ on Instagram

Apps

iPhone/iPad app

Quote Of The Day Feeds

Javascript and RSS feeds

WordPress plugin

Quote of the Day Email

About

Copyright © 2001 - 2018 BrainyQuote

Language: Español | Français

Please disable your ad blocker

OK