Paul Theroux

"Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us."

"You have to find out for yourself. Take the leap. Go as far as you can. Try staying out of touch. Become a stranger in a strange land. Acquire humility. Learn the language. Listen to what people are s…"

"Animal lovers often tend to be misanthropes or loners, and so they transfer their affection to the creature in their control."

"“Mustn’t grumble” was the most English of expressions. English patience was mingled inertia and despair. What was the use? But Americans did nothing but grumble! Americans also boasted. "I do some pre…"

"Fogeydom is the last bastion of the bore and reminiscence is its anthem. It is futile to want the old days back, but that doesn't mean one should ignore the lessons of the visitable past."

"Even the most distant and exotic place has its parallel in ordinary life."

"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."

"In many ways connection has been disastrous. We have confused information with ideas (of which there are too few. I found out much more about the world and myself by being unconnected."