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I hate vacations. I hate them. I have no fun on them. I get nothing done. People sit and relax, but I don't want to relax. I want to see something.

Paul Theroux

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Paul Theroux
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: April 10
Film Writer
Novelist
Writer
Medford
Massachusetts
Paul Edward Theroux
Hate
Nothing
Done
Something
People
Vacations
Vacation
Relax
Fun

More quotes by Paul Theroux

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I'm not pessimistic about Africa. The cities just seem big and hopeless. But there's still a great green heart where there's possibility. There's hope in the wilderness.
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Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.
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Many aspects of the writing life have changed since I published my first book, in the 1960s. It is more corporate, more driven by profits and marketing, and generally less congenial - but my day is the same: get out of bed, procrastinate, sit down at my desk, try to write something.
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One of the cardinal principles of Buddhism, the principle of neglect.
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It is almost axiomatic that the worst trains take you through magical places.
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If you're a misanthrope you stay at home. There are certain writers who really don't like other people. I'm not like that, I don't think.
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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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Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going.
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Luxury is the enemy of observation, a costly indulgence that induces such a good feeling that you notice nothing. Luxury spoils and infantilizes you and prevents you from knowing the world.
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...a society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists.
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It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.
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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. It's not about inventing.
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I don't want to be the honored guest. I want to be the invisible person.
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The worst thing that can happen to you in travel is having a gun pointed at you by a very young person. That's happened to me maybe four times in my life. I didn't like it.
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Even if I were traveling with you, your trip would not be mine.
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The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.
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The man who is tired of London is tired of looking for a parking space
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People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble, they write about having to wait for a bus. They write about waiting. They write three pages about how long it took them to get a visa. I'm not interested in the boring parts. Everyone has tummy trouble. Everyone waits in line. I don't want to hear about it.
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I sought trains I found passengers.
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Writing is pretty crummy on the nerves.
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