A travel book is about someone who goes somewhere, travels on the ground, sees something and spends quite a lot of time doing it, and has a hard time, and then comes back and writes about it. Its not about inventing. – Paul Theroux
The realization that he is white in a black country, and respected for it, is the turning point in the expatriates career. He can either forget it, or capitalize on it. Most choose the latter. – Paul Theroux
Friendship is also about liking a person for their failings, their weakness. Its also about mutual help, not about exploitation. – Paul Theroux
When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa I didnt make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didnt make a phone call. So for six years I didnt make a phone call, but I wrote letters, I wrote short stories, I wrote books. – Paul Theroux
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.