Quotes by Paul Theroux

• Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.
• You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.
• The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson's on the main drag into maturity.
• Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.
• Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.
• Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.
• Extensive traveling induces a feeling of encapsulation, and travel, so broadening at first, contracts the mind.
• Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable and you will never be asked to do a thing.
• Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.
• I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.
• It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.
• The Australian Book of Etiquette is a very slim volume.
• The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.
• There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment.
• Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.
• Life is the only game where the goal is maximum enjoyment and the bonus is a few great friends to celebrate with.