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
literary robust seem serious struck
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.
awakens danger fears life living problem solve
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.
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.
can-do ifs
What I find is that you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you're not in a hurry.
travel retrospect glamorous
Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.
guests want invisible
I don't want to be the honored guest. I want to be the invisible person.
travel book writing
A travel book is about someone who goes somewhere, travels on the ground, sees something and spends quite a lot of time doing it, and has a hard time, and then comes back and writes about it. It's not about inventing.
travel book stories
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.
buddhism principles neglect
One of the cardinal principles of Buddhism, the principle of neglect.
eagles dying nests
Bogotá seemed a cruel towering place, like an eagles' nest now inhabited by vultures and their dying prey.
romance sensuality associates
There's a lot of sensuality that I associate with travel. And that's romance.
technology thinking hands
I said I didn't think it would be a collectivist state so much as a wilderness in which most people lived hand to mouth, and the rich would live like princes - better than the rich had ever lived, except that their lives would constantly be in danger from the hungry predatory poor. All the technology would serve the rich, but they would need it for their own protection and to assure their continued prosperity.
unexpected now-and-then traveler
Now and then in travel, something unexpected happens that transforms the whole nature of the trip and stays with the traveler.
travel upset bazaars
Railways are irresistible bazaars, snaking along perfectly level no matter what the landscape, improving your mood with speed, and never upsetting your drink.