The only thing that makes life worth living is the possibility of experiencing now and then a perfect moment. And perhaps even more than that, it's having the ability to recall such moments in their totality, to contemplate them like jewels. Paul Bowles More Quotes by Paul Bowles More Quotes From Paul Bowles No one can ever heap enough insults upon me to suit my taste. I think we all really thrive on hostility, because it's the most intense kind of massage the ego can undergo. Other people's indifference is the only horror. Paul Bowles ego people thinking He awoke, opened his eye. The room meant very little to him; he was too deeply immersed in the non-being from which he had just come. If he had not the energy to ascertain his position in time and space, he also lacked the desire. ... In utter comfort, utter relaxation he lay absolutely still for a while, and then sank back into on the the light momentary sleeps that occur after a long, profound one. Paul Bowles space eye sleep It's unnecessary and destructive to think of oneself at all. People ask me, 'What do you think of yourself as?' My answer is, 'Nothing. Paul Bowles ego people thinking 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, convinced we're going to fall off at the next bump. Paul Bowles hanging-on bumps fall That was what he wanted, to be baked dry and hard, to feel the vaporous worries evaporating one by one, to know finally that all the damp little doubts and hesitations that covered the floor of his being were curling up and expiring in the great furnace-blast of the sun. Paul Bowles dry doubt worry Not all the ravages caused by our merciless age are tangible ones. The subtler forms of destruction, those involving only the human spirit, are the most to be dreaded. Paul Bowles tangible spirit age If you don't know why you like a thing, it is usually worth your while to attempt to find out. Paul Bowles ifs knows Publishers are thieves, they are on the other side of the barricade. Paul Bowles thieves sides writing The act of living had been enjoyable; at some point when I was not paying attention, it had turned into a different sort of experience, to whose grimness I had grown so accustomed that I now took it for granted. Paul Bowles experience different attention The soul is the weariest part of the body. Paul Bowles parts-of-the-body body soul One never took the time to savour the details; one said: another day, but always with the hidden knowledge that each day was unique and fatal, that there never would be a return, another time. Paul Bowles details unique would-be Because neither she nor Port had ever lived a life of any kind of regularity, they had both made the fatal error of coming hazily to regard time as non-existent. One year was like another year. Eventually everything would happen. Paul Bowles another-year errors years I wanted to meet other artists. I suppose I simply felt that I was taking pot shots at clay pipes. Pop! Down goes Gertrude, down goes Jean Cocteau, down goes André Gide. Paul Bowles gertrude clay artist Every second, ten stars set behind the black water in the west. Paul Bowles black stars water It was one of the charms of the International Zone that you could get anything you wanted if you paid for it. Do anything, too, for that matter; - there were no incorruptibles. It was only a question of price. Paul Bowles charm matter wanted There is a way to master silence Control its curves, inhabit its dark corners And listen to the hiss of time outside Paul Bowles curves silence dark The Hindus are busy letting themselves be seen riding in Cadillacs instead of smearing themselves with sandalwood paste and bowing in front of Ganpati. The Moslems would rather miss evening prayer than the new Disney movie. The Buddhists think it's more important to take over in the name of Stalin and Progress than to meditate on the four basic sorrows. And we don't even have to mention Christianity or Judaism. Paul Bowles buddhist prayer thinking Fiction should always steer clear of political considerations. Paul Bowles consideration political fiction
