black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

Every 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

What a man does defiles him, not what is done by others.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Believe Define Done Man Other
I began to write when I was seven, and I have been writing off and on ever since. It is still off and on. You can say that when I am on, when I know I have a book which I am going to write, then I write two thousand words a day. That’s so many pages longhand.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Been Began Ever Off Say Seven Since Still When Write You
It may be — I hope it is — redemption to guess and perhaps perceive that the universe, the hell which we see for all its beauty, vastness, majesty, is only part of a whole which is quite unimaginable.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Beauty Guess Hell Hope Majesty May Perhaps Redemption See Universe Vastness
We’re not savages. We’re English.
WILLIAM GOLDING

English Language Savage
I am astonished at the ease with which uninformed persons come to a settled, a passionate opinion when they have no grounds for judgment.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Astonish Ease Prison Settle Uniform
The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Beast Harmless Horrible Must News Other Possible Reach Soon
I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Condition Intelectual Nature Optimist Pessimist
I do think that art that doesn’t communicate is useless.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Art Communicate Think Useless
I believe man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature. I produce my own view in the belief that it may be something like the truth.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Applying Believe Ignorance Man Nature Own Suffer
If faces were different when lit from above or below — what was a face? What was anything?
WILLIAM GOLDING

Above Anything Below Face Facem Different When
There’s a kinship among men who have sat by a dying fire and measured the worth of their life by it.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Among Dry Kinship Life Measure Men Sat Worth
The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Chief Think Trouble Wise
I began to see what people were capable of doing. Anyone who moved through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey, must have been blind or wrong in the head.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Anyone Began Ca[Able Do Evil Man Move People Produce Understanding Without
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
My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Face Gray Keep Over Peer Shoulder Step Walk Yesterday
Nothing is so impenetrable as laughter in a language you don’t understand.
WILLIAM GOLDING

Imperitable Language Laughter Nothing Understand

Every 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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

Every 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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More William Golding Quotes