Author Profile
Paul Theroux
1941 • American • Novelist
63
Total Quotes
Collected Meditations
Showing 63 quotesEver since childhood, when I lived within earshot of the Boston and Maine, I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it.— Paul Theroux
I know there are writers who feel unhappy with domesticity and who even manufacture domestic turmoil in order to have something to write about. With me, though, the happier I feel, the better I write.— Paul Theroux
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
There are places that I've always wanted to go. First I went to Africa, and when I was there I realized there were places in Africa I really to wanted to visit: The Congo, West Africa, Mombassa. I wanted to see the deep, dark, outlandish places.— Paul Theroux
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
Many aspects of the writing life have changed since I published my first book, in the 1960s. It is more corporate, more driven by profits and marketing, and generally less congenial - but my day is the same: get out of bed, procrastinate, sit down at my desk, try to write something.— Paul Theroux
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
My house is a place I have spent many years improving to the point where I have no desire to leave it.— Paul Theroux
I think I am typical in believing that the Peace Corps trained us brilliantly and then did little more except send us into the bush. It was not a bad way of running things.— Paul Theroux
When I started writing, I did have some idealised notion of my dad as a writer. But I have less and less of a literary rivalry with him as I've gone on. I certainly don't feel I need his approval, although maybe that's because I'm confident that I've got it.— Paul Theroux
You can't separate the people from the places - although I sometimes like traveling in places where there are no people.— Paul Theroux
Although I'm not fluent in sign language by a long way, I could have a fairly decent conversation.— Paul Theroux
A journey awakens all our old fears of danger and risk. Your life is on the line. You are living by your own resources; you have to find your own way and solve every problem on the road.— Paul Theroux
I'm not pessimistic about Africa. The cities just seem big and hopeless. But there's still a great green heart where there's possibility. There's hope in the wilderness.— Paul Theroux
I think that love isn't what you think it is when you're in your twenties or even thirties.— Paul Theroux