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The Navy’s a very gentlemanly business. You fire at the horizon to sink a ship and then you pull people out of the water and say, ‘Frightfully sorry, old chap.’

William Golding

Beethoven for listening; Liszt, Chopin, and Beethoven for playing as well as Bach and Prokofiev and so on. If I kept going, this list would spiral. It’s as wide as literature; in fact, it is probably wider.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Beethoven Country Listen People Person Play Well
The greatest ideas are the simplest.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Greatest Ideas Simplest
I do like people to read the books twice, because I write my novels about ideas which concern me deeply and I think are important, and therefore I want people to take them seriously. And to read it twice of course is taking it seriously.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Book Concern Deeply Idea Important Like Novel People Raed Therefore Think Twice
If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.” “If you don’t blow, we’ll soon be animals anyway.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Blow Come Back Conch
Towards midnight the rain ceased and the clouds drifted away, so that the sky was scattered once more with the incredible lamps of stars.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Away Cease Cloud Drift Incredible Lamp Mighnight More Once Scatter Sky Star Towards
I hope my books make statements about our general condition.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Book Condition General Hope Make Statement
I don’t think they [contemporary writers] read me either. I mean, if we’re concerned genuinely with writing, I think we probably get on with our work.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Concern Contemporary Either Genuinely Mean Read Think Write
And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Been Since Specs Three Wear
A star appeared…and was momentarily eclipsed by some movement.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Appear Eclipse Momentarily Movement Some Star
Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?
WILLIAM GOLDING

Better Break Hunt Law Rescue Thing Up
I’ve come across a novel called The Palm-Wine Drinkard, by the Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola, that is really remarkable because it is a kind of fantasy of West African mythology all told in West African English which, of course, is not the same as standard English.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Call Come Cross Dimkard Kind Novel Palm Person Really Remarkable Wine Writer
I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Condition Intelectual Nature Optimist Pessimist
The mask was a thing on it’s own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Behind Consciousness Country Liberated Mask Own People Person Self Shame Think
I do think that art that doesn’t communicate is useless.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Art Communicate Think Useless
We just got to go on, that’s all. That’s what grownups would do.
WILLIAM GOLDING

All Do Go Grown Up Just On
I will tell you what man is. He is a freak, an ejected foetus robbed of his natural development, thrown out into the world with a naked covering of parchment, with too little room for his teeth and a soft bulging skull like a bubble. But nature stirs a pudding there.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Cover Development Eject Foetus Freak Made Man Natural Rob Tell Will World

The Navy’s a very gentlemanly business. You fire at the horizon to sink a ship and then you pull people out of the water and say, ‘Frightfully sorry, old chap.’

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The Navy’s a very gentlemanly business. You fire at the horizon to sink a ship and then you pull people out of the water and say, ‘Frightfully sorry, old chap.’

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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