Paul Bowles

“These were the first moments of a new existence, a strange one in which she already glimpsed the element of timelessness that…

— Paul Bowles

“Once you accept the fact that life isn't fun, you'll be much happier," his mother said to him.”

— Paul Bowles

“In the school they teach you what the world means, and once you have learned, you will always know," Amar's father had…

— Paul Bowles

“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

“If you could not have freedom you could still have vengeance.”

— Paul Bowles

The sky hides the night behind it and shelters the people beneath from the horror that lies above.

— Paul Bowles

“Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to…

— Paul Bowles

“He knew it was necessary to drive the French out, but he had always imagined that this would be done gloriously, with…

— Paul Bowles

“But don't we all like to be overpowered, one time or another.”

— Paul Bowles

“And yet always you feel as though you understood perfectly the people and why they do everything as they do.Still you are…

— Paul Bowles

The only thing that makes life worth living is the possibility of experiencing now and then a perfect moment. And perhaps even…

— Paul Bowles

I wanted to meet other artists. I suppose I simply felt that I was taking pot shots at clay pipes. Pop! Down…

— Paul Bowles

“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

“I have the feeling you are primarily two people,one of which should be killed.”

— Paul Bowles

“Each Whining Thing (1929) When stripèd snakes shall creep upon us And the nervous screams of birds Make silent all the fountains…

— Paul Bowles

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

“Whoever invented the concept of fairness, anyway? Isn't everything easier if you simply get rid of the idea of justice altogether? You…

— Paul Bowles

Although I knew enough Freud to believe that the sex urge was an important mainspring of life, it still seemed to me…

— Paul Bowles

Each time I go to a place I have not seen before I hope it will be as different as possible from…

— Paul Bowles

“Poem Things will go on like this for Ever. No Thing shall shatter. No Tree. No Blade of grass shall be There.…

— Paul Bowles

“The bar was stuffy and melancholy. It was full of the sadness inherent in all deracinated things.”

— Paul Bowles

No one can ever heap enough insults upon me to suit my taste. I think we all really thrive on hostility, because…

— Paul Bowles

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

“You can't discipline the whole country." "Still," Moss said dreamily, "that's what must be done before they can ever accomplish anything.”

— Paul Bowles

“Still, he could not think of the mass of Moroccans without contempt. He had no patience with their ignorance and backwardness; if…

— Paul Bowles