It wasn’t until I was 37 that I grasped the great truth that you’ve got to write your own books and nobody else’s, and then everything followed from there.
WILLIAM GOLDINGIt wasn’t until I was 37 that I grasped the great truth that you’ve got to write your own books and nobody else’s, and then everything followed from there.
WILLIAM GOLDINGHowever you disguise novels, they are always biographies.
WILLIAM GOLDINGHe became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. He talked to them, urging them, ordering them. Driven back by the tide, his footprints became bays in which they were trapped and gave him the illusion of mastery.
WILLIAM GOLDINGAnd I’ve been wearing specs since I was three.
WILLIAM GOLDINGA star appeared…and was momentarily eclipsed by some movement.
WILLIAM GOLDINGWhat kind of human person has a favorite eraser?
WILLIAM GOLDINGI know there isn’t no beast-not with claws and all that, I mean-but I know there isn’t no fear, either.” Piggy paused. “Unless-” Ralph moved restlessly. “Unless what?” “Unless we get frightened of people.
WILLIAM GOLDINGHow can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?
WILLIAM GOLDINGEven if you got rid of paper, you would still have story-tellers. In fact, you had the story-tellers before you had the paper.
WILLIAM GOLDINGThis is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we’ll have fun.
WILLIAM GOLDINGMaybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us.
WILLIAM GOLDINGOne’s intelligence may march about and about a problem, but the solution does not come gradually into view. One moment it is not. The next it is there.
WILLIAM GOLDINGPeople don’t help much.
WILLIAM GOLDINGYou’ll get back to where you came from.
WILLIAM GOLDINGWe have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.
WILLIAM GOLDINGEvery novel is a biography. Well, then, this is a novel [The Paper Men] which is a biography that is pretending to be an autobiography. That’s what you could say about it.
WILLIAM GOLDING