Paul Theroux on Granta.com
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The Online Edition
English Hours: Nothing Personal
Paul Theroux
‘England does not have a climate; it has weather, seldom dramatic.’
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The Online Edition
Over There
Various Contributors
‘The old romance of power and victory was forever eviscerated on the day I spent carrying Iraqi POWs. ‘
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The Online Edition
Lady Max
Paul Theroux
‘I went to my study and opened my notebook and read: Shafts of sunlight filled with brilliant flakes falling through the green leaves to the jungle floor – which was where I had left off yesterday to write my book review and go to Gaston's.’
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The Online Edition
The Lepers of Moyo
Paul Theroux
‘Boarding the train in the African darkness just before dawn was like climbing into the body of a huge, dusty monster'.
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The Online Edition
First Train Journey
Paul Theroux
‘I had been travelling for more than ten years – in Europe, Asia and Africa – and it had not occurred to me to write a travel book‘.
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The Online Edition
Unspeakable Rituals
Paul Theroux
‘Whenever people ask me about travel I always suspect they are buttonholing me, eager to relate amazing adventures of their own’.
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The Online Edition
Dear Old Dad
Paul Theroux
‘Playing a role gave him latitude and allowed him to overcome his reticence.’
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The Online Edition
Mother of the Year
Paul Theroux
‘The words ‘big family’ have the same ring for me as 'savage tribe', and I now know that every big family is savage in its own way.’
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The Online Edition
Scouting for Boys
Paul Theroux
‘Three figures came single file over a wooded hill of the Fells carrying their rifles one-handed and keeping their heads low. They were duckwalking, hunched like Indian trackers, with the same stealth in their footfall, toeing the mushy earth of early spring. I was one of them, the last, being careful, watching for the stranger, his black hat, his blue Studebaker. Walter Herkis and Chicky DePalma were the others. When we got to the clearing where the light slanted through the bare trees and into our squinting faces you could see we were twelve years old.’
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The Online Edition
The Lawyer’s Story
Paul Theroux
‘Bow tie, blue shirt, tight suit, cowboy boots—he was overdressed for Singapore.’
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The Online Edition
Chatwin Revisited
Paul Theroux
‘When I think of Bruce Chatwin, who was my friend, I am always reminded of a particular night, a dinner at the Royal Geographical Society, hearing him speaking animatedly about various high mountains he had climbed.‘
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The Online Edition
Subterranean Gothic
Paul Theroux
‘When people says the subway frightens them, they are not being silly or irrational.’
