If youre a misanthrope you stay at home. There are certain writers who really dont like other people. Im not like that, I dont think. – 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
Its only when youre alone that you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on except your own resources. – Paul Theroux
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
It must not be forgotten in fairness to the National Government that apartheid is not just a policy of oppression but an attempt – in my opinion an attempt doomed to failure – to find an alternative to a policy of racial integration which is fair to both white and black. – Harry Oppenheimer