I greatly enjoyed Tom Reiss's The Orientalist, for its mingled scholarship and sleuthing, and for so elegantly solving the puzzle of one of the Twentieth Century's most mysterious writers. Paul Theroux More Quotes by Paul Theroux More Quotes From Paul Theroux My love for traveling to islands amounts to a pathological condition known as nesomania, an obsession with islands. This craze seems reasonable to me, because islands are small self-contained worlds that can help us understand larger ones. Paul Theroux self islands world I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better. Paul Theroux productivity strive inspiring The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown. Paul Theroux risk travel moving Travel is at its most rewarding when it ceases to be about your reaching a destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life Paul Theroux live-your-life reaching destination You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back. Paul Theroux going-away different long Airplanes have dulled and desensitized us; we are encumbered, like lovers in a suit of armor. Paul Theroux suits-of-armor airplane lovers Reading liberates you. You could know about the world through reading. Paul Theroux reading knows world Travel is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with existence or the exotic. It is almost always an inner experience. Paul Theroux exotic states mind Travel is a vanishing act, a solitary trip down a pinched line of geography to oblivion. Paul Theroux vanishing lines travel 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." Paul Theroux humble america thinking Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us. Paul Theroux second-chance giving fiction Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing. Paul Theroux modest reputation gains There has to be a measure of difficulty or problem-solving in travel for it to be worthwhile. Paul Theroux problem-solving worthwhile problem Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going. Paul Theroux journey adventure travel Travel is an attitude, a state of mind. It is not residence, it is motion. Paul Theroux states mind attitude Even if I were traveling with you, your trip would not be mine. Paul Theroux mines ifs It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled. Paul Theroux principled lonely expensive I hate vacations. I hate them. I have no fun on them. I get nothing done. People sit and relax, but I don't want to relax. I want to see something. Paul Theroux vacation hate fun Travel is glamorous only in retrospect. Paul Theroux inspirational funny travel I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely. Paul Theroux phones lonely ideas
