Best of Travel: Paul Theroux on the necessary obstacles of meaningful journeys

"All writing is trying to destroy a stereotype, and the individual that you're writing about -- the figure in the landscape -- is actually the ideal." —Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux's highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, My Other Life, and The Mosquito Coast. His 1975 book The Great Railway Bazaar is credited with revitalizing the genre of literary travel writing, and his more recent travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Dark Star Safari, and The Last Train to Zona Verde.

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Paul talk about Theroux's book Figures in a Landscape, and strategies for writing about the "human architecture of a place" (5:30); the attitude and time-investment required for meaningful travel reportage (20:30); the qualities that determine successful travel writing (25:50); the essential discomforts and obstacles of travel (32:45); the uses and shortcomings of paper maps in developing countries (40:15); and where Paul is traveling next (46:00).

Media mentioned in the 2026 intro

• Deviate Mini-Essays: Creative Free-Writes for Life's Journey (Substack newsletter)
• 6 Travel Podcasts to Inspire Your Next Trip (New York Times article)
• Kansas Never Plays Itself (non-travel Deviate episode)
• 2024 Deviate Super Bowl Special (non-travel Deviate episode)
• A mixtape (of sorts) about mixtapes (non-travel Deviate episode)
• The most 1980s underdog story of the 1980s (non-travel Deviate episode)
• A personal history of my grunge-bandwagon band (non-travel Deviate episode)
• Nine lessons from my failed van-life memoir (non-travel Deviate episode)

Books, articles, and films mentioned

• "Paul Theroux on Blogging, Travel Writing, and 'Three Cups of Tea'" (2011 Atlantic interview)
• The Great Railway Bazaar, by Paul Theroux
• The Mosquito Coast, by Paul Theroux
• The Tao of Travel, by Paul Theroux
• Deep South, by Paul Theroux
• American Notes, by Charles Dickens
• Barbary Shore, by Norman Mailer
• Journey Without Maps, by Graham Greene
• Sea and Sardinia, by D.H. Lawrence
• Travels, by Ibn Battuta
• Travels, by Marco Polo
• Lafcadio Hearn's Japan: An Ant...