Paul Theroux Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“The two impulses in travel are to get away from home, and the other is to pursue something - a landscape, people, an exotic place. Certainly finding a place that you like or discovering something unusual is a very sustaining thing in travel.”

“The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.”

“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.”

“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.”

“What strikes me about high-school reunions is the realization that these are people one has known one's whole life.”

“What draws me in is that a trip is a leap in the dark. It's like a metaphor for life. You set off from home, and in the classic travel book, you go to an unknown place. You discover a different world, and you discover yourself.”

“Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.”

“It's only when you're alone that you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on except your own resources.”

“I have always felt that the truth is prophetic, and that if you describe precisely what you see and give it life with your imagination, then what you write ought to have lasting value, no matter what the mood of your prose.”

“My record was so bad that I was first rejected by the Peace Corps as a poor risk and possible troublemaker and was accepted as a volunteer only after a great deal of explaining and arguing.”