Juan Carlos

“When I was young” … “Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus, it would get richer and deeper each year. You kept learning more, getting wiser, having more insight, going further into the truth” – she hesitated.

Port laughed abruptly. – “And now you know it’s not like that. Right? It’s more like smoking a cigarette. The first few puffs it tasted wonderful, and you don’t even think of its ever being used up. Then you begin taking it for granted. Suddenly you realize it’s nearly burned down to the end. And then’s when you’re conscious of the bitter taste.”
― Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

“Security is a false God. Begin to make sacrifices to it and you are lost.”
― Paul Bowles

“A diferencia de los árabes, los invasores germanos penetraron en el imperio con una identidad cultural extremadamente flexible. Un franco podía seguir siendo tal por más que hablase una lengua procedente del latín o rindiese culto al altar de un santo galorromano como san Martín de Tours. Desde el punto de vista cultural, a largo plazo los invasores germanos resultaron muy adaptables...por contra, el islam y el árabe siguieron siendo el núcleo de la identidad de los conquistadores, por lo que cualquier nativo conquistado que quisiese convertirse en «árabe» debía cambiar de religión y de lengua.”
― Bryam Ward-Perkins

“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.”
― Paul Bowles