Paul Theroux Quotes

Ever since childhood, when I lived within earshot of the Boston and Maine, I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it.

Travelling is a great time to catch up on my reading. It's hard falling asleep in new places, but a good book always makes it easier.

The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.

So it allows me to travel, I'll be doing that and running these great rivers and doing what I've done in the past without much purpose other than for the experience.

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.

I've been a traveller, but I don't travel so much now. I'm trying to do it vicariously through my writing. I'm trying to write books that will draw readers away from their lives but send them back in a more awakened way.

There are so many different reasons as to why I love riding trains. But I think ultimately it's the romantic feeling of it. There's something about it that just transports me into old films.

All the fascination of King Solomon's Mines seems to be behind those great mountains and this I may add is a bit of advance work for mother, an entering wedge to my disappearing from sight for years and years in the Congo.

Filmmaking is a great adventure. I'm as excited as a kid to be given tickets to fly suddenly to England, South Africa, America, everywhere. I'm still a 13-year-old kid, flying.

Writers and travelers are mesmerized alike by knowing of their destinations.

So far, and today, everything felt really great. Now I am good to get on the plane and fly to Australia.

From a good book, I want to be taken to the very edge. I want a glimpse into that outer darkness.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

I discovered that in a story I could safely dream any dream, hope any hope, go anywhere I pleased any time I pleased, fight any foe, win or lose, live or die. My stories created a safe experimental learning place.

I read a lot of highly unsuitable books for an 11-year-old. I was desperate to read as widely as possible. I thought, 'There are so many places I am never going to get the chance to visit, but I can if I read them.' And I did. I could go anywhere in the world - and off it - by reading.

I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.

The story of 'Highway' is completely about travel. It is about the fascination of travel to an extent that I don't want to even reach the destination and also being away from society gives you a certain view of the society, so that was the intention of the film.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

I think a lot of nice things happen when you're driving, or when you're on a plane, or whatever. There's a certain freedom that comes along with motion.

We all like going to the dark side of things; we all like dipping into worlds that we don't know anything about, or hopefully don't know anything about. I think 'Banshee' gives people a chance to do that pretty safely because we all know there's a solid buffer between the show and reality.

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

You can't separate the people from the places - although I sometimes like traveling in places where there are no people.

Movement has been one of the few constants in my life, and I always feel a great sense of optimism when I set off to a new place.

A lot of people don't like the road, but it's as natural to me as breathing.

Generally, I love traveling because it's great to see new places.