Paul Theroux quotes - page 3

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 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. View quote
Paul Theroux
The worst thing that can happen to you in travel is having a gun pointed at you by a very young person. That's happened to me maybe four times in my life. I didn't like it. View quote
Paul Theroux
My love for traveling to islands amounts to a pathological condition known as nesomania, an obsession with islands. This craze seems reasonable to me, because islands are small self-contained worlds that can help us understand larger ones. View quote
Paul Theroux
An island is a fixed and finite piece of geography, and usually the whole place has been carved up and claimed. View quote
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. View quote
Paul Theroux
Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. View quote
Paul Theroux
I am happy being what I am. View quote
Paul Theroux
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.' View quote
Paul Theroux
Ever 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. View quote
Paul Theroux
My greatest inspiration is memory. (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. View quote
Paul Theroux
A gun show is about like-minded people who feel as if everything has been taken away from them - jobs, money, pride. View quote
Paul Theroux
The amount of hassle involved in travel can be overwhelming. View quote
Paul Theroux
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. View quote
Paul Theroux
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. View quote
Paul Theroux
Fiction writing, and the reading of it, and book buying, have always been the activities of a tiny minority of people, even in the most-literate societies. View quote
Paul Theroux
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. View quote
Paul Theroux
A novel captures essence that is not possible in any other form. View quote
Paul Theroux
Men in their late 50s often make very bad decisions. View quote
Paul Theroux
It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled. (Paul Theroux)
Although I'm not fluent in sign language by a long way, I could have a fairly decent conversation. View quote
Paul Theroux
When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there. View quote
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. View quote
Paul Theroux
The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume. View quote
Paul Theroux