You must not judge people by their country. In South America, it is always wise to judge people by their altitude. Paul Theroux More Quotes by Paul Theroux More Quotes From Paul Theroux The biggest surprise was that a country like Angola, that has so much money, that produces so much oil, would be in such a mess and so difficult to travel in. Something is almost cursed in striking oil. It's like the lottery winner who ends up broke. Paul Theroux oil would-be country If people are driving you around to look at animals, that's wonderful. That's educational, but it's not necessarily enlightening and you're not finding out much about yourself. Paul Theroux educational animal people All politicians, even the most idealistic ones, are looking for money, sucking up to rich people. Paul Theroux rich politician people To a lot of Africans, seeing an animal is a something of a rarity. So it's a paradox of this sort of parallel life. A safari is an expensive experience and it's adjacent to a place where people are having a very tough time. Paul Theroux tough-times animal people I'm a tourist, a glorified tourist. I'm not doing it to have a good time or to lie in the sun. Paul Theroux tourists sun lying A travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler, and it's usually a book about having a very bad time, having a miserable time, even better. You don't want to read a book about someone having a great time in the South of France, eating and drinking and falling in love. What you want to read is a book about a guy going through the jungle, going through the arctic snow, having a terrible time trying to cross the Sahara, and solving problems as they go. Paul Theroux falling-in-love drinking book Television cannot film corruption. Television cannot spend five days on a rattling railway train, talking endlessly. Television needs excitement, it needs an angle, it needs a 'sound bite. Paul Theroux corruption sound talking television The two impulses in travel are to get away from home, and the other is to pursue something - a landscape, people, an exotic place. Certainly finding a place that you like or discovering something unusual is a very sustaining thing in travel. Paul Theroux you home people travel What draws me in is that a trip is a leap in the dark. It's like a metaphor for life. You set off from home, and in the classic travel book, you go to an unknown place. You discover a different world, and you discover yourself. Paul Theroux me you home life Many small towns I know in Maine are as tight-knit and interdependent as those I associate with rural communities in India or China; with deep roots and old loyalties, skeptical of authority, they are proud and inflexibly territorial. Paul Theroux deep small proud roots Movable type seemed magical to the monks who were illuminating manuscripts and copying texts. Certainly e-books seem magical to me. Paul Theroux magical were who me
