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Paul Bowles

Paul Bowles Quotes

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Famous Paul Bowles Quotes

“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.”

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Book:The Sheltering Sky: Let it Come Down ; The Spider's House
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“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.”

ThinkingKnowsLifeWellsSeemsHappensRememberDeathCertainTimeDiesMemoriesNumbersWatchesKnowingFiveFourChildhoodInspirational LifeMoonLive LifeLife And DeathMore TimeAfternoonWasting TimeComposerLiving My LifeEnjoy LifeLimitlessLife Is ShortLife Is Too ShortChildhood MemoriesFull MoonSmall NumbersAppreciate LifeDon't Waste Your TimeTime FliesLive Life HappyConceivingLife Being ShortMoon Rise
Author:Paul Bowles
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“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.”

IfsLittlesLongStillsLightEyeDesireEnergySleepSpaceRoomsPositionComfortLaysProfoundHis EyesRelaxationTime And SpaceMomentary
Author:Paul Bowles
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“You will find yourself among people. There is no help for this nor should you want it otherwise. The passages where no one waits are dark and hard to navigate. The wet walls touch your shoulders on each side. When the trees were there I cared that they were there. And now they are gone, does it matter? The passages where no one waits go on and give no promise of an end. You will find yourself among people, Faces, clothing, teeth and hair and words, and many words When there was life, I said that life was wrong. What do I say now? You understand?”

PeopleWantGivingShouldDoeSaidEndsMatterHardHelpingFacesWaitingSidesDarkGoneTreeHairWallGoes OnPromiseShouldersTeethFinding YourselfPassagesClothingsWetNavigateDoes It Matter
Book:The Portable Paul and Jane Bowles
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“Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he had felt most at home.”

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Book:The Sheltering Sky
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“I've always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born. Far both geographically and spiritually. To leave it behind ... I feel that life is very short and the world is there to see and one should know as much about it as possible. One belongs to the whole world, not just one part of it.”

KnowsWorldFeelsShouldWholeWantedLife IsBornBehindsWhole WorldJust OneFar AwayLife Is ShortLife Is Too Short
Book:Conversations with Paul Bowles
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“Each time I go to a place I have not seen before I hope it will be as different as possible from the places I already know. I assume it is natural for a traveler to seek diversity, and that it is the human element that makes him most aware of difference. If people and their manner of living were alike everywhere, there would not be much point in moving from one place to another.”

PeopleIfsKnowsHumansDifferentMovingNaturalDifferencesElementsDiversityAssumingTraveler
Book:Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue
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