Paul Theroux Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I get up, go and get a coffee, and go do the crossword - I'm loyal to one particular paper, the 'Guardian' - and that's my idea of a perfect morning.
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I think every job I do, I sort of look for the challenge in. I mean, that's why we do this job. It's not, you know, obviously not for the money or for the fame, it's for, I guess finding out more about yourself.
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All training is negotiation, whether you're training dogs or spouses.
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I want minimum information given with maximum politeness.
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To be honest, as an actor, job security is not a trait.
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There's more to life than physical and material.
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Look at the forces against me. They don't want me out. They're afraid I'll cause trouble if I get out.
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I don't think that bands that make it on their first album are as strong as bands that don't: there is nowhere to go but down.
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Whenever I tell people I'm from Miami, they always ask me about the beach. But I can count on one hand the times I went there as a kid.
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People don't usually compliment your character.
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The history of Europe over the last several centuries provides clear evidence of the transformative power of commerce.
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L.A. is so big that if you don't actually live in Hollywood, you might as well be from a different planet.
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It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome. That's what defines your career.
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And all the zig-zags and lines in my hair? I used to do that myself. I just thought it was cool that you could actually do that with your hair.
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Your idol is shattered in the dust to prove that God's dust is greater than your idol.
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Looking towards the future, one of the most important issues the national community must face is the widening gap between the liberated, modern, independent women and our traditional men who are being left behind.
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When I first read Anne Frank's 'Diary of a Young Girl,' I saw for the first time that a girl could be a writer and that it had something to do with survival and with ethics and fighting against evil. I admired her, though her diary remained terrifying and mysterious to me. She was a character in a real fairy tale - fairy tales are brutal.
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As a child, I amused myself by making up stories. I'd lie in bed when I was supposed to be sleeping and imagine other lands where people were doing fascinating things. By fifth grade, I knew I wanted to be a writer, but it took several more decades to really find my way as an author.
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There's nothing worse than a violent beating from an unremarkable person. Physical violence with someone is too much like shagging them. Too much id involved.
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The funny thing is most people don't approach me because they are scared, and that's fine, I want to keep it that way. But the thing is if you're not scared or get over it you learn that sometimes what you're scared of is really what you shouldn't be scared of.
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The book that convinced me I wanted to be a writer was 'Crime and Punishment'. I put the thing down after reading it in a fever over two or three days... I said, 'If this is what a book can be, then that is what I want to do.'
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True reflection presents me to myself not as idle and inaccessible subjectivity, but as identical with my presence in the world and to others, as I am now realizing it: I am all that I see, I am an intersubjective field, not despite my body and historical situation, but, on the contrary, by being this body and this situation, and through them, all the rest.
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When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there.
