442 Quotes by Paul Theroux

The biggest surprise was that a country like Angola, that has so much money, that produces so much oil, would be in such a mess and so difficult to travel in. Something is almost cursed in striking oil. It’s like the lottery winner who ends up broke.

Normal, nice people don’t become writers.

When I’m writing, I like to travel alone. If you really want to find out about a place, you need to be as free as possible to be spontaneous. You also need to be lonely, because loneliness is a great teacher, too.

What I find is that you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you’re not in a hurry.

Nothing is more satisfying in travel than to land in a place and assume an occupation, even a temporary one, as a teacher.

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.

People who don’t read books a lot are threatened by books.

And then there are the laziest and most presumptuous of people, those who can read but who don’t bother, who live in the smuggest ignorance and seem to me dangerous.

The more you write, the more you’re capable of writing.