Paul Theroux Quotes

I think to be writer you have to enjoy being alone. I was a loner as a teenager and was always drawn to characters in books and films who were at the fringes.

It doesn't matter about money; having it, not having it. Or having clothes, or not having them. You're still left alone with yourself in the end.

I have been thinking about joining the Peace Corps. That is something that I would absolutely love to do. I think that would be an incredible experience, so that's an avenue that I might want to look at.

I'm most interested in working and learning from different people and telling good stories.

I'm a bit of a recluse, very fond of my own company.

I used to feel that I spent too much of my time in my pajamas doing nothing, and I'd think 'in the time that I don't spend writing, I could raise a family of five.' In a lot of ways, being a writer is lonely and alienating.

I wanted to communicate and connect. I simply didn't seem able to do it.

All good writing comes out of aloneness.

I didn't have a lot of friends. I just walked around a lot and made up stories in my head. Then I'd go home and write them down. That's how I got started.

If we don't know how to be alone, we'll only know how to be lonely.

I do use FaceTime because I'm frequently isolated from friends and my boyfriend, so I get that.

I wasn't that close to any of my teammates. I didn't find anyone to become a best friend. We don't stay in touch. They're all over the country, but I do not want to stay in touch.

When I went to prison, for three years I didn't say a word to another human being until, going into the fourth year, when I realized, 'You know what, I have to find a way to live.'

You never meet other screenwriters because it's such a lonely profession.

Directing is extrovert and gregarious; writing is isolating, introverted, and lonely.

I think my becoming a writer had much to do with spending a chunk of each year sitting by myself out in a tent without radio, without newspapers, without a whole lot of people to interact with, without anybody having any sort of similar background to me.

Much like film, authors spend a fair amount of time alone in the creative process, tossing their work out into what can feel like an abyss, void of real people.

I like to be by myself, probably because I have been a single child.

Isolation is the one sure way to human happiness.

Yes, I do seek solitude, but I am never lonely.

I like to write about the solitary things people do. Humans seem to function best when they're alone.

When you're writing, it's a very solitary job. It's you and your word processor and a cup of tea.

I grew up between Detroit and Ghana, and I had to make friends in an instant. It sharpened my wit, and also, just for my own sanity's sake, I felt like I wanted to entertain myself. So I'm going through all these experiences, and I ask myself, 'Is this crazy? Is it? Wait, what's so funny about this?'

I think one of the toughest things is that balancing act of trying to maintain relationships while being on the road.

As an introverted kid who lived in the middle of nowhere, my stories made up the whole of my social life. That meant that while other kids cultivated hobbies like skateboarding or playing the piano, I sat at home scribbling in notebooks.