Quotes from Paul Theroux

I did not share their joy or feel very kindly toward any of them

It was a poor town—the meagerly stocked market was proof of that.

I told him to tell the truth,' Mr. Fang said. 'It is important to know the truth about the Cultural Revolution. Foreigners must be told. We must face the facts. It was a disaster ...

I had slipped into Mexico in a matter of minutes; returning, it took more than two hours in a line of uncomplaining Mexicans

Reynosa has a terrible reputation for cartel violence. But Reynosa's two large hotels on the plaza were inexpensive and pleasant, and I had a good meal at the restaurant La Estrella.

Meanwhile, el taller, two hours in the morning, a discussion over lunch, always an outing and often dinner: full days with two dozen students who had become my friends. I had not taught in a classroom for more than forty years, and rediscovered the pleasure of the back-and-forth with intelligent, engaged students. I was eager to meet them each day, I enjoyed their company, and I was grateful for their companionship.

I waited until they had all filed into the church, the communicants, the families, the gawking townspeople—and these last included farmers, mechanics in blue overalls, and stallholders, some of them from the carnicería, their aprons gathered and bunched in their hands, the white cloth reddened with blood spatter from the slabs of cow meat, pigs' heads, and pigs' trotters they had knifed apart that morning.

Mark said, "It's simple, really. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God.

The past wasn't dead, nor past. She herself was black, and was explaining the demographic of the Black Belt today by referring to slavery, still a visitable memory because of the persistence of its effects.

the gringos of McAllen stayed at home

The British were fatalistic; it was the origin of their cynicism, but it also made them good sharers of misfortune. 'Oh, well, mustn't grumble!

The town of San Luis, just down the road, is larger and slightly better off because it is an important border crossing. Mexicans from the other side at San Luis Río Colorado shop at the Walmart Super Center and the stores on Main Street.

The solution is simple: if we passed a law requiring United States farmers to hire only men with entry visas and work permits, there would be no problem. There is no such law. The farm lobby has made sure of that, for if there were no Mexicans to exploit, how would these barrel-assed slavers be able to harvest their crops?

which proved yet again, as I had seen in many lands, that the Bible was often the happy hunting ground of an unbalanced mind.

The sight of bribery on the back road of any country is a clear indication that the whole place is corrupt and the regime a thieving tyranny, as Angola has been for the thirty-five years of its independence—and likely much longer, since Portuguese colonial rule was also an extortion racket.

He had been sent to nanny me and breathe down my neck. He had been discreet-he had not gotten in my way; but who had asked him to come? Not me.

Greene was insecure, needy, insatiable, interested in variation, and always willing to have a go.

human architecture

It is wrong to see a country in a bad mood: you begin to blame the country for your mood and to draw the wrong conclusions.

Obsessive and easily bored, he was incapable of being sexually faithful to any woman. He reveled in being a wanderer, an eavesdropper, a stranger

It was the simplest crossing I'd ever made in a long career of crossing borders

I was apprehensive for my being conspicuous: Ignacio was right—no gringos visible, either in cars or walking.

country roads of Guanajuato—green pastures of browsing cows, old timber corrals and tile-roofed ranchitos, wildflowers, butterflies

Using an extremely clever if somewhat fanciful Chinese technique for ensnaring awkward visitors, they insisted that I was too important to travel alone and so stuck me with Mr. Fang.