Some gems from The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux.
*Literature is made out of the misfortunes of others. A large number of travel books fail simply because of the monotonous good luck of their authors. * I can write better about places I have never seen. Edgar Rice Burroughs. * I wouldn't mind seeing China if I could come back home the same day. Philip Larkin. (Theroux then adds this priceless comment: Needless to say Larkin lived for most of his life with his mother .) |
*`...goodbye to shit and sweepers, to people who tolerate everything, to the refusal to act, to the absence of dignity, to that curious pettiness that permeates that vast country. Probably it all has to change. Not only must caste go but all those sloppy Indian garments, all those saris and lungis, all that squatting on the floor to eat, to write, to serve in a shop, to piss. `
VS Naipaul. |