American - Novelist | April 10, 1941 -
Fiction gives us the second chances that life denies us.
Paul Theroux
LifeFictionUsChancesSecond
Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.
TravelGlamorousOnlyRetrospect
You can't write about a friend, you can only write about a former friend.
FriendYouWriteOnlyAboutFormer
People who don't read books a lot are threatened by books.
PeopleBooksWhoReadThreatened
The people I've known who've done great things of that type - you know, building hospitals, running schools - are very humble people. They give their lives to the project.
GreatHumblePeopleBuildingYou
There's books that are about places we will never go, and then there's books that inspire us to go.
InspireGoWillPlacesNeverUs
There are two worlds: the world of the tourist and the world of everyone else. Often they're side by side. But the tourist doesn't actually see how people live.
LivePeopleWorldEveryoneSeeSide
I don't look down on tourism. I live in Hawaii where we have 7 million visitors a year. If they weren't there, there would be no economy. So I understand why a tourist economy is necessary.
LiveYearHawaiiLookDownWhy
The appeal of travel books is also the sense that you are different, an outsider, almost like the Robinson Crusoe or Christopher Columbus notion of being the first person in a new place.
TravelYouPlacePersonNewFirst
The idea of traveling in Africa for me is based on going by road or train or bus or whatever and crossing borders. You can't travel easily or at all through some countries.
TravelMeRoadYouTrainAfrica
I should start by saying that traveling in the States is a bit like traveling in Asia. You need it, it helps to have an introduction - that there is a certain network.
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I believe I have a sunny disposition, and am not naturally a grouch. It takes a lot of optimism, after all, to be a traveler.
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