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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

“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.”

Ifs Want Needs Writing Teacher Loneliness Lonely Spontaneous Great Teacher Be Spontaneous

Author:Paul Theroux

“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

“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.”

People Needs Writing Book Feelings Strong India China Dialogue Description Comment Traveler Compelled Pacific Travel Writing Sense Of Place Albania Travel Books

Book:The Best American Travel Writing 2001

Source: The Best American Travel Writing 2001

“People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction.”

People Writing Pain Pleasure Satisfaction

Author:Paul Theroux

“When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there.”

Writing Stories Wanted Hong Kong

Author:Paul Theroux

“Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.”

Writing Nerves

Author:Paul Theroux

“You can't write about a friend, you can only write about a former friend.”

Writing Former Former Friends

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

“A travel book is about someone who goes somewhere, travels on the ground, sees something and spends quite a lot of time doing it, and has a hard time, and then comes back and writes about it. It's not about inventing.”

Writing Book Hard Travel Hard Times Inventing Travel Books

Author:Paul Theroux

“Fiction writing, and the reading of it, and book buying, have always been the activities of a tiny minority of people, even in the most-literate societies.”

People Writing Book Reading Fiction Activity Tiny Buying Minorities Fiction Writing

Author:Paul Theroux

“Many aspects of the writing life have changed since I published my first book, in the 1960s. It is more corporate, more driven by profits and marketing, and generally less congenial - but my day is the same: get out of bed, procrastinate, sit down at my desk, try to write something.”

Writing Trying Firsts Book Changed Bed Aspect Marketing Profit Driven Corporate Desks Writing Life 1960s Procrastinating Life Has Changed

Author:Paul Theroux

“People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble, they write about having to wait for a bus. They write about waiting. They write three pages about how long it took them to get a visa. I'm not interested in the boring parts. Everyone has tummy trouble. Everyone waits in line. I don't want to hear about it.”

People Want Writing Long Three Waiting Lines Trouble Pages Sick Boring Bus Not Interested Visa

Author:Paul Theroux

“Notice how many of the Olympic athletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? “She drove me to my practice at four in the morning,” etc. Writing is not figure skating or skiing. Your mother will not make you a writer. My advice to any young person who wants to write is: leave home.”

Want Writing Persons Home Young Mother Practice Morning Four Advice Figures Athlete Etc Skating Figure Skating Skiing Olympic Athlete

Author:Paul Theroux

“The monotony of staying in one place is the best thing for writing a novel. Having regular habits, a kind of security, but especially no big surprises, no shocks.”

Writing Kind Bigs Novel Security Habit Surprise Best Things Shock Staying Monotony Big Surprises

Author:Paul Theroux

“Writing ... is practically the only activity a person can do that is not competitive.”

Writing Persons Can Do Activity

Author:Paul Theroux

“Every country has the writers she requires and deserves, which is why Nicaragua, in two hundred years of literacy, has produced one writer-a mediocre poet.”

Writing Years Two Country Poet Hundred Deserve Mediocre Literacy Nicaragua

Book:The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas

Source: The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas

“The more you write, the more you're capable of writing.”

Writing Capable

Author:Paul Theroux

“When I started writing, I did have some idealised notion of my dad as a writer. But I have less and less of a literary rivalry with him as I've gone on. I certainly don't feel I need his approval, although maybe that's because I'm confident that I've got it.”

Needs Feels Writing Gone Dad Notion My Dad Approval Rivalry

Author:Paul Theroux

“When I write about my childhood I think, oh my God, how did I ever get from there to here? Not that any great thing has happened to me. But I felt so tiny, so lost.”

Thinking Writing Lost Felt Happened Childhood Tiny Great Things

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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