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Paul Theroux Quotes

Film writer

Paul Theroux, born on April 10, 1941, is a renowned film writer from the United States. Theroux is known for his distinctive style of storytelling, which often delves into profound life philosophies and social issues.

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All People Travel Writing Book Thinking Way Traveler Ifs Persons Want Knows Reading Train World Home Journey Made Men Years Needs

Famous Paul Theroux Quotes

“The difference between travel writing as fiction is the difference between recording what the eye sees and discovering what the imagination knows. Fiction is pure joy - how sad that I could not reinvent the trip as fiction.”

Knows Writing Eye Joy Imagination Differences Fiction Pure Discovering Travel Writing Pure Joy

Book:The Great Railway Bazaar

Source: The Great Railway Bazaar

“I never stay with people and I never look people up when I travel. I depend more on just chance meetings. The advantage is that people don't know who I am. I meet people casually and they're not doing me a big favor because I'm going to write something.”

People Knows Writing Looks Bigs Chance Depends Advantage Meetings Favors Who I Am Doing Me Chance Meeting

Author:Paul Theroux

“Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading.”

Knows World Reading

Author:Paul Theroux

“Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.”

Source: The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

“You may not know it but I'm no good at coping with all the attention in the luxury hotels I sometimes find myself in.”

Knows May Sometimes Attention Luxury Hotel Coping Luxury Hotels

Author:Paul Theroux

“I know there are writers who feel unhappy with domesticity and who even manufacture domestic turmoil in order to have something to write about. With me, though, the happier I feel, the better I write.”

Knows Feels Writing Order Unhappy Turmoil Domesticity

Author:Paul Theroux

“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 Knows Kind Hands Kindness Travel Stranger

Book:The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

Source: The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

“It is fatal to know too much at the outcome: boredom comes as quickly to the traveler who knows his route as to the novelist who is over certain of his plot.”

Knows Certain Too Much Hero Novelists Outcomes Boredom Plot Traveler Routes

Author:Paul Theroux

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

Knows Persons Social Limits Swear Swear Word

Author:Paul Theroux

“When I left Africa in 1966 it seemed to me to be a place that was developing, going in a particular direction, and I don't think that is the case now. And it's a place where people still kid themselves - you know, in a few years this will happen or that will happen. Well, it's not going to happen. It's never going to happen.”

People Thinking Knows Years Wells Stills Happens Kids Left Cases Particular Developing

Author:Paul Theroux

About the Author

Born: April 10, 1941
Known for: Film writer
Quotes: 209

Books & Sources

The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the AmericasRelated source material

The Great Railway BazaarRelated source material

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape TownRelated source material

The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the RoadRelated source material

Sunrise with SeamonstersRelated source material

The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the PacificRelated source material

Ghost train to the eastern star: on the tracks of the Great Railway BazaarRelated source material

Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through ChinaRelated source material

The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great BritainRelated source material

The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African SafariRelated source material

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