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Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux Quotes

Film writer

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Famous Paul Theroux Quotes

“So far I had been travelling alone with my handbook and my Western Railway timetable: I was happiest finding my own way and did not require a liaison man. It had been my intention to stay on the train, without bothering about arriving anywhere: sight-seeing was a way of passing the time, but, as I had concluded in Istanbul, it was an activity very largely based on imaginative invention, like rehearsing your own play in stage sets from which all the actors had fled.”

MenWayPlayActorsMy OwnSeeingStageActivityFindingsSightTrainIntentionWesternInventionPassingPassingsBotherImaginativeArrivingRailwayIstanbulRehearsingTimetablesLiaison
Book:The great railway bazaar: by train through Asia
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“The larger an English industry was, the more likely it was to go bankrupt, because the English were not naturally corporate people; they disliked working for others and they seemed to resent taking orders. On the whole, directors were treated absurdly well, and workers badly, and most industries were weakened by class suspicion and false economies and cynicism. But the same qualities that made English people seem stubborn and secretive made them, face to face, reliable and true to their word. I thought: The English do small things well and big things badly.”

PeopleWellsMadeWholeBigsSeemsFacesOrderQualityClassEconomyIndustryDirectorsWorkersTreatedCorporateCynicismSuspicionStubbornBig ThingsSmall ThingsFace To FaceResentSecretive
Book:The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain
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“I said I didn't think it would be a collectivist state so much as a wilderness in which most people lived hand to mouth, and the rich would live like princes - better than the rich had ever lived, except that their lives would constantly be in danger from the hungry predatory poor. All the technology would serve the rich, but they would need it for their own protection and to assure their continued prosperity.”

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Book:To the Ends of the Earth: The Selected Travels of Paul Theroux
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“Unless there is a strong sense of place there is no travel writing, but it need not come from topographical description; dialogue can also convey a sense of place. Even so, I insist, the traveler invents the place. Feeling compelled to comment on my travel books, people say to me, "I went there"---China, India, the Pacific, Albania-- "and it wasn't like that." I say, "Because I am not you.”

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Book:The Best American Travel Writing 2001
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“A travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler, and it's usually a book about having a very bad time, having a miserable time, even better. You don't want to read a book about someone having a great time in the South of France, eating and drinking and falling in love. What you want to read is a book about a guy going through the jungle, going through the arctic snow, having a terrible time trying to cross the Sahara, and solving problems as they go.”

WantTryingBookProblemGuyFallTerribleEatingCrossesDrinkingSouthFalling In LoveShoesWhat You WantSnowMiserableFranceProblem SolvingTravelerJungleGreat TimesBad TimesArcticEating And DrinkingSaharaTerrible TimesTravel Books
Author:Paul Theroux
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“When you travel you realize how small you are. You need to be humble. You can't be a big, brash American. You think you have problems. You leave the States and you see people have bigger problems than you, much worse problems than you. They have nothing to eat, they have no water, they have no shelter, they have a terrible government. So you realize we complain about the government, we complain about food, whatever it is, and go somewhere else and you think, "Now I realize," you say, "Why people want to come to America."”

PeopleThinkingWantNeedsStatesProblemBigsGovernmentAmericaWaterRealizingTerribleBiggerHumbleComplainingShelterSomewhere ElseBe HumbleBrashBigger Problems
Author:Paul Theroux
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