Quotes from Paul Theroux

When she was done, I talked to her a little—and I was the only one.

We brought the Caravan to the United States two years ago, to inform the people, and many listened and shared our concern. They were very sympathetic.

Read to live better.

Like most Hong Kongers I had met, they were complete provincials, with laughable pretensions. Was it the effect of colonialism? They were well fed and rather silly and politically naive. In some ways Hong Kong was somewhat like Britain itself: a bunch of offshore islands with an immigrant problem, a language barrier and a rigid class system.

insight," and the "message" of his books (which is no message at all) is similar to Gogol's in Nabokov's summary: "Something is very wrong and all men are mild lunatics engaged in petty pursuits that seem to them very important, while an

Only two bodies were found and identified; the rest vanished, "and they are crying out for justice.

What could be crueler? I suppose the answer was: lots of things-an intellectual forced to shovel chicken shit, a Muslim forced to keep pigs, a physicist ordered to assemble radios, an historian in a dunce cap, a person beaten to death for being a teacher.

I was tumbling down the side of a dark star.

Someone knows—someone in the government, or the army, or the police. This is a government of secrets. If there are secrets, there can be no justice.

insight," and the "message" of his books (which is no message at all) is similar to Gogol's in Nabokov's summary: "Something is very wrong and all men are mild lunatics engaged in petty pursuits that seem to them very important, while an absurdly logical force keeps them at their futile jobs." By reputation Portis is reclusive, yet

What about writers—are they protesting?" "Yes, many," María said. "Juan Villoro?" "Villoro has written a great deal, and he is a friend to our movement.

He caught my eye, saw me staring, and waved in a neighborly way, from his own country.

What he liked best was taking things apart, even books, even the Bible. He said the Bible was like an owner's guide, a repair manual to an unfinished invention. He also said the Bible was a wilderness. It was one of Father's theories that there were parts of the Bible the no one had ever read, just as there were parts of the world where no one had ever set foot.

This was the far western end of the frontier, which is marked by a tall, rust-colored, iron-slatted fence—paralleling an older, lower fence—blistered with corrosion, which extends below the tidemark, its end sunk in the Pacific Ocean.

she looked a hundred years older, as stale and ruined as yesterday's oatmeal.

was to discover that this detail mattered: a low tide allows migrants to splash more easily around the fence and sprint up the oily beach into the American thickets.

Texas A&M International

Tak, ludo?ercy i misjonarze s? dla siebie stworzeni.

What I find is that you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere if you're not in a hurry.

Emphasizing the honky-tonk and the wickedness, I sounded disapproving, but I was happy. This was life to me, and I was joyous on those seedy streets, pretty women in doorways snatching at me. I was a thrill-seeking traveler, looking for something sensational to write about, but I did not look very deeply.

I am not interested in excuses for delay; I am interested only in a thing done.

One obvious answer is that the risks and privations in Mexico are much worse that those endured in a border crossing.

We tolerate difference only when we don't have to look at it or listen to it, as long as it doesn't impact our lives.

or flying over the chaos in their private helicopters.