Paul Theroux Quotes

I left home when I was 16 because I was looking for adventure.

And after I dropped him off, I took the longest possible route home... I explored alleys and hidden roads I never knew existed. I discovered neighborhoods entirely new to me. And finally... I discovered I was sick of this town and everything in it.

I kind of moved out of the town I grew up in as quick as I could. I left right after high school.

All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away.

I had really wanted adventure. At the time that I ran away, lots of kids ran away from home. It was something of a social phenomenon.

I wanted a future outside my hometown.

Where ever I am I always find myself looking out the window wishing I was somewhere else.

I grew up in an era of thinking of travel as escape. The idea that you could conceivably have a new life, go somewhere, fall in love, have little children under the palm trees.

I would like to spend the whole of my life traveling, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home.

I knew I didn't want to be stuck in Stoke Newington for the rest of my life, hanging about with idiots. That wasn't for me. I wanted to go out and have a look around.

I was just restless with being in school; so I went out to Los Angeles.

I longed from a tiny child to get away on my own. When I was five, I walked out along the sands from Redcar, nearly all the way to Hartlepool.

I was always ready to leave England for some absurd reason.

I haven't found anywhere in the world where I want to be all the time. The best of my life is the moving. I look forward to going.

I just needed to leave Hollywood.

I was living in Woodstock for a long time, and I thought, I got to get out of here, man.

When I was growing up, I just wanted to be somewhere else. I didn't like living in Knockemstiff, and I figured when I got older, I'd move off to some big city.

I am living out my adolescent dream of travel and adventure.

I gave up writing children's books. I wanted to escape from them as I had once wanted to escape from 'Punch': as I have always wanted to escape. In vain.

If I could miracle myself away, I would live out West.

When I've got time off, my feet get itchy really quickly.

When I was very young and the urge to be someplace was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch.

It is restful to leave one's home; not because traveling does not entail varied and difficult daily actions, but because it removes our responsibilities.

I can't wait to get out of the house. I can't wait to get out of here. I've been telling myself this all week. The 'getting out of here' part is unspecified, though. Maybe I simply want to get away from life

I have a house, I try to spend as little time in it as possible. Not always easy on the mind and body, but it's how I got myself to 80-plus countries. This kind of routine forces one to reinvent and improvise. The older I get, the more important this is to me.