All writing, even the clumsy kind, exposes in its loops and slants a yearning deeper than an intention, the soul of the writer flopping on the clothes-peg of his exclamation mark.

About Paul Theroux

Paul Edward Theroux ( thə-ROO; born April 10, 1941) is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue The Great Railway Bazaar (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial...

More quotations from Paul Theroux

Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.

—Paul Theroux

travel

More quotations tagged with “yearning”

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up.

—Louise Erdrich in The Painted Drum

solitude love life risk vulnerability heartbreak yearning

The absolute yearning of one human body for another particular one and its indifference to substitutes is one of life's major mysteries.

—Iris Murdoch

indifference lust body yearning want

Justice is like the kingdom of God—it is not without us as a fact; it is within us as a great yearning.

—George Eliot

justice God yearning

All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.

—Andre Breton

longing yearning naming

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.… And one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

—F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby

future effort desire striving yearning want

History

23 Nov 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

All writing, even the clumsy kind, exposes in its loops and slants a yearning deeper than an intention, the soul of the writer flopping on the clothes-peg of his exclamation mark.