Paul Theroux

What I'm arguing for in the book is more isolation. I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely. In the same way that sexual promiscuity doesn't necessarily make people happy; you can have a lot of sex and still be lonely. So I think that cell phones and constant connection have induced a different kind of solitude, one that doesn't solve the problem of loneliness.

Travel works best when you're forced to come to terms with the place you're in. When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call, but I wrote letters, I wrote short stories, I wrote books.

-Paul Theroux, interviewed about his book The Tao of Travel
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