Quotes from Paul Theroux

If a train is large and comfortable you don't even need a destination; a corner seat is enough, and you can be one of those travelers who stay in motion, straddling the tracks, and never arrive or feel they ought to.

Penrhyndeudraeth

Reading 1984 might get people thinking about it,' I said.

An implication in all books about the country is that, though Europeans successfully emigrate to Mexico and become Mexican, no American can follow suit: the gringo remains incorrigibly a gringo.

People in power—police, politicians—believe they can get away with murder.

found myself confiding that I had been bored in church and in school and listening to speeches (escuchando discursos).

Their businesses were among the approximately sixty dental practices here, mainly concentrated in a three-block area, all within easy walking distance of the border gate.

The humane aspects of Zoroastrianism probably accounted for its diminution as a faith, if not its failure. A religion needs harshness and hokum to succeed, and all Zarathustra taught was understanding the earthly elements, the turn of the year, the one God.

Telling the truth and being ethical often keeps people from political power, but doing the right thing, always, without exception, is all that matters in the long run, and is ultimately powerful. That's why the true heroes of the civil rights struggle were never politicians. They were humble folk on a mission, enduring sit-ins and organizing marches and debates. When they began to succeed, the politicians, seeing an opportunity, followed them.

On that first visit, Nogales seemed to me a border town trying to save itself, and I thought succeeding. Walking in the city, I was struck by the distinct air of foreignness mingled with a pleasing ordinariness

Manuel was in his early thirties, well spoken, handsome in his motorcycle leathers, patient with my questions, and polite

Mormonism was like junk food: It was American to the core and it looked all right, but it wasn't until after you had swallowed some that you felt strange. I

This Mexican hospitality to gringos is in ironic contrast to the present ubiquity of Mexicans who are demonized and fenced in, stamped as undesirable, considered suspect, and unwelcome in America.

in the end there is no desire so deep as the simple desire for companionship

I said that. "A veces, las personas—los paracaidistas—mueren." Sometimes the skydivers die. Dieter seemed pleased that I had challenged him

the subject of boredom.

Like many other sexually obsessed men he tended to be noncommittal, evasive, given to unexplained vanishings and sentimental utterances, but forever feverishly on the prowl.

not desperate but lost, pathetic, fatalistic, like doomsday refugees, a glimpse of what the end of the world will look like:

Education in Mexico turns people into activists.

All this confession and evasion, in the relentless interrogation of language learning, sometimes led to awkwardness.

But these former Red Guards and the refugees from the Cultural Revolution-surely they're out of school?' 'No, Chen said. 'There's a whole army of night-school students.

Teasing, especially the public sort, as well as the joshing in a joking relationship, always contains an element of hostility.

I taught from a book called Modern American English. 'You're lucky to have me. I'm a modern American and I speak English, I said.

I was happier than I had been since starting this trop on The Iron Rooster. I was driving. I was in charge. I was taking my time; and Tibet was empty. The weather was dramatic-snow on the hills, a high wind, and black clouds piled up on the mountains ahead. I also thought: I didn't die the other day.