Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Therouxis an American travel writer and novelist, whose best-known work is The Great Railway Bazaar. He has published numerous works of fiction, some of which were adapted as feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast, which was adapted for the 1986 movie of the same name...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 April 1941
CountryUnited States of America
humble thinking government
When you travel you realize how small you are. You need to be humble. You can't be a big, brash American. You think you have problems. You leave the States and you see people have bigger problems than you, much worse problems than you. They have nothing to eat, they have no water, they have no shelter, they have a terrible government. So you realize we complain about the government, we complain about food, whatever it is, and go somewhere else and you think, "Now I realize," you say, "Why people want to come to America."
long going-away different
You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.
live-your-life reaching destination
Travel is at its most rewarding when it ceases to be about your reaching a destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life
peace maturity drag
The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson's on the main drag into maturity.
problem problem-solving worthwhile
There has to be a measure of difficulty or problem-solving in travel for it to be worthwhile.
reading world knows
Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading.
second-chance giving fiction
Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.
falling-in-love children thinking
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.
mines ifs
Even if I were traveling with you, your trip would not be mine.
inspirational funny travel
Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.
rhinos gone pessimistic
You can't save the rhinos and you can't preserve a culture. I'm very pessimistic. Once it's gone, it's over.
travel adventure journey
Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.
creative cooking kitchen
Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation-- experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way
lonely ideas phones
I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely.