442 Quotes by Paul Theroux

The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.

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.

Railways are irresistible bazaars, snaking along perfectly level no matter what the landscape, improving your mood with speed, and never upsetting your drink.

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

Travel is a vanishing act, a solitary trip down a pinched line of geography to oblivion.

Truly, the worst trains take one across the best landscapes.

I hate vacations. I hate them. I have no fun on them. I get nothing done. People sit and relax, but I don't want to relax. I want to see something.

A foreign swear-word is practically inoffensive except to the person who has learnt it early in life and knows its social limits.

There's books that are about places we will never go, and then there's books that inspire us to go.