“...a man could scarcely make his writing a reason for living unless he believed in the validity of that writing.” — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Once you accept the fact that life isn't fun, you'll be much happier," his mother said to him.” — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
Because neither she nor Port had ever lived a life of any kind of regularity, they had both made the fatal error… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
We've never managed, either one of us, to get all the way into life. We're hanging on to the outside for all… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
If people and their manner of living were alike everywhere, there would not be much point in moving from one place to… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
The act of living had been enjoyable; at some point when I was not paying attention, it had turned into a different… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“It made her sad to realise that in spite of their so often having the same reactions, the same feelings, they never… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well…How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty.… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
Although I knew enough Freud to believe that the sex urge was an important mainspring of life, it still seemed to me… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“the writer: "a spy sent into life by the forces of death. His main objective is to get the information across the… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
I've always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born. Far both geographically and spiritually. To… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
The only thing that makes life worth living is the possibility of experiencing now and then a perfect moment. And perhaps even… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Whenever he was en route from one place to another, he was able to look at his life with a little more… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“And it occurred to him that a walk through the countryside was a sort of epitome of the passage through life itself.… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Our civilization is doomed to a short life: its component parts are too heterogeneous. I personally am content to see everything in… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“How many times his (Port's) friends, envying him his life, had said to him: "Your life is so simple." "Your life seems… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“These were the first moments of a new existence, a strange one in which she already glimpsed the element of timelessness that… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus. It would get… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“When I was young” … “Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
You will find yourself among people. There is no help for this nor should you want it otherwise. The passages where no… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“At some point in the night she had a dream. Or it was possible that she was partially awake, and was only… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
Each time I go to a place I have not seen before I hope it will be as different as possible from… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Tangier is more New York than New York. ... Then you must see how alike the two places are. The life revolves… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“You know what?” he said with great earnestness. “I think we’re both afraid of the same thing. And for the same reason.… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“Death is always on its way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from… — Paul Bowles Copy Share Image
“When I was young” … “Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus,… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
A black star appears, a point of darkness in the night sky's clarity. Point of darkness and gateway to repose. Reach out, pierce the… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
We've never managed, either one of us, to get all the way into life. We're hanging on to the outside for all we're worth,… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
Everyone is isolated from everyone else. The concept of society is like a cushion to protect us from the knowledge of that isolation. A… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
Illness reduces man to his basic state: a cloaca in which the chemical processes continue. The meaningless hegemony of the involuntary. — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“You know what?” he said with great earnestness. “I think we’re both afraid of the same thing. And for the same reason. We’ve never… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“... how could any young man merely sit back and wait for divine justice to take its course? It was asking the impossible.” — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“There could be nothing, he reflected, to equal a government which was simply the honest enforcement, by means of the sword, of the laws… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
Not all the ravages caused by our merciless age are tangible ones. The subtler forms of destruction, those involving only the human spirit, are… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“What a wonderful thing to be an American!" he said impetuously. "Yes," said Dyar automatically, never having given much thought to what it would… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“How peaceful it was, with the light evening breeze stirring the small leaves of the grapevine that clustered around the electric bulb, making the… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“If people are living the same as always, with their bellies full of food, they'll just go on the same way. If they get… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
“Scene VI (1940) It is our fault we love only the skull of Beauty Without knowing who she was, of what she died. We… — Paul Bowles Copy Share
