442 Quotes by Paul Theroux

One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made the book yours.

The lust of the eye. The best photographs were, to me, like an experience of drowning.

Maine is a joy in the summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in the winter.

Travel is about failure or overcoming obstacles, overcoming failures. When a traveler is having lots of good luck, that is not a happy book. That's a book you say, well, I don't need that. I want a life lesson. I want to find out - I want a journey that reflects my life.

... Oceanic malaise. I never saw anyone reading anything more demanding than a comic book. I never heard any youth express an interest in science or art. No one even talked politics. It was all idleness, and whenever I asked someone a question, no matter how simple, no matter how well the person spoke English, there was always a long pause before I got a reply, and I found these Pacific pauses maddening. And there was giggling but no humor - no wit. It was just foolery.

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.

Tourists who go to Africa have more of a traditional experience than Africans do. A tourist goes on safari; Africans don't.

Everyone had an opinion and no one had a solution.

Africa is really a place for the wealthy traveler. It's got some nice hotels, but they're very expensive hotels. It doesn't really cater to the backpacker or to the overland traveler.