Paul Theroux Quotes

I feel like, throughout lots of my life, especially growing up, I felt powerless.

As a child, I was so deeply insecure.

I wish that someone had said to me that it's normal to feel lost for a little while.

I actually didn't enjoy being a child particularly at all even though I had nice parents in a comfortable place to live. Just because I was too confused in generating too many answers for myself that just scared me more.

It's pretty intense writing about my own life, my own struggles.

Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.

I know it sounds pathetic, but I don't know who I am.

I relate to Nora's transformation in Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House,' and I also relate to both sisters' journeys in John Madden's film 'Proof.'

I always told, Sandra Bullock was my student when she was younger, I always told her it's important that we hold on to our insecurity, the wisdom of insecurity.

When I was younger, I used to be super, super shy. I still find myself being scared of things.

People look at me and go, 'You must have it made. You have girls. You have a great life.' It's not true. I mean you pull the curtain away, and you see I'm just as insecure and neurotic and scared and vulnerable as anybody, you know.

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.

I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up.

To be honest, I was kind of a shy kid growing up.

They were doing a full back shot of me in a swimsuit and I thought, Oh my God, I have to be so brave. See, every woman hates herself from behind.

People say, 'Weren't you deprived of your childhood?' No way. I would not take anything back at all. Everything about it was great. I got to go places, meet people, play baseball against older kids and better competition. I had a great time.

I was bullied as a boy - lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.

I remember, when I was a little kid, I was good at sports, and I could jump off the high board. And then puberty hit, and suddenly I was looking to boys for direction. I remember that as a great loss.

I was not very strong growing up, and my uncle used to look at me, like, 'This kid is not growing up, he is growing tall but he can be broken like a banana.' The banana in Congo is called 'Dikembe.' So my uncle start calling me, 'Dikembe, Dikembe, look at you Dikembe, you cannot even stand up.' It took a long time for me to walk.

In the case of 'Ocean at the End of the Lane,' it's a book about helplessness. It's a book about family, it's a book about being 7 in a world of people who are bigger than you, and more dangerous, and stepping into territory that you don't entirely understand.

I identified with Pip from 'Great Expectations,' especially when I was younger; I had the same kind of gaucheness and uncertainty.

When I was younger, I thought I was too young to really be personal. I thought that what I was feeling and thinking might be half-baked.

Being an actor sometimes requires that you ask yourself questions you'd rather not know the answers to.

The teenage years are such a great subject because everything is heightened and on the surface, and it deals with universal emotions that we face even as we get older.

The ideas I'm working with are ideas I'm committed to. I don't know how to soft-shoe them. I don't know how to make them more palpable. I just never knew how to be one of those girls. I wish I knew how to be that sometimes, but I don't know how to be that way.