“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.” ThinkingImportantNamesPrayerChristianityFourProgressMissingFrontsSorrowBusyBuddhistEveningRidingJudaismCadillacsSandalwoodEvening Prayer Book:The Sheltering Sky: Let it Come Down ; The Spider's House Source: The Sheltering Sky: Let it Come Down ; The Spider's House
“Although I knew enough Freud to believe that the sex urge was an important mainspring of life, it still seemed to me that any conscious manifestation of sex was necessarily ludicrous. Defecation and copulation were two activities which made a human being totally ridiculous. At least the former could be conducted in private, but the latter by definition demanded a partner. I discovered, though, that whenever I ventured this opinion, people took it as a joke.” PeopleBelieveHumansMadeStillsTwoImportantEnoughSexHuman BeingsOpinionActivityJokesConsciousDefinitionsPartnersRidiculousFormerManifestationLatterUrges Author:Paul Bowles
“[A]nother important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to his liking.” ImportantDifferencesAcceptingCivilizationElementsFormerCompareRejectsTravelerTourists Book:The Paul Bowles reader Source: The Paul Bowles reader
