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
journals letters life work
Everything is fiction. You only have your own life to work with in the way that a biographer only has the letters and journals to work with.
written
I have written stories, essays, even whole books on trains, scribble-scribble.
realized united
The place that interests me most, actually, is the United States. I've realized that I haven't traveled much in the States. There's a lot to see.
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.
impulse mental people physical travel understand
The travel impulse is mental and physical curiosity. It's a passion. And I can't understand people who don't want to travel.
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.
travel moving risk
The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown..
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
problem problem-solving worthwhile
There has to be a measure of difficulty or problem-solving in travel for it to be worthwhile.
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.
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 kindness hands
Most travel, and certainly the rewarding kind, involves depending on the kindness of strangers, putting yourself into the hands of people you don't know and trusting them with your life.
travel retrospect glamorous
Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.