I am here; and here is nowhere in particular. William Golding More Quotes by William Golding More Quotes From William Golding Life's scientific, but we don't know, do we? Not certainly, I mean. William Golding knowsmean In India the odd thing is that English is this almost artificial language floating on the surface of a place with about fifty other languages. The same is true of Nigeria but even more so. William Golding odd-thingsfloatingindia I think they've got 250 languages in Nigeria, and so English is a sort of lingua franca between the 250 languages. William Golding nigerialanguagethinking Latin, as we all know, ultimately broke down into Spanish, Italian, French, and so on. One wonders whether there will be an imperial parallel with English breaking down into, shall we say, North American, European, Australian, and so on. On the other hand, there is this immense, inward-driving influence of radio and television that is bringing us all back together. One could say it's a fight between the two: a fight between regionalism and the standardization through communication. William Golding communicationfightinglatin Percival was mouse-coloured and had not been very attractive even to his mother. William Golding miceattractivemother 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 biographiespapermen The journey of life is like a man riding a bicycle. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. We know that if he stops moving and does not get off he will fall off. William Golding manridingjourneylife Before the Second World War, I believed in the perfectability of social man; that a correct structure of society produced goodwill; and that, therefore, you could remove all social ills by a reorganisation of society. It is possible that I believe something of the same again; but after the war, I did not because I was unable to. William Golding youmansocietywar If you... scaled down human beings, scaled down society, if you land with a group of little boys, they are more like a scaled-down version of society than a group of little girls would be. William Golding little-girlsdownyousociety A novel ensures that we can look before and after, take action at whatever pace we choose, read again and again, skip and go back. The story in a book is humble and serviceable, available, friendly, is not switched on and off but taken up and put down, lasts a lifetime. William Golding downlookhumblebook Boys do not evaluate a book. They divide books into categories. There are sexy books, war books, westerns, travel books, science fiction. A boy will accept anything from a section he knows rather than risk another sort. He has to have the label on the bottle to know it is the mixture as before. William Golding sexywarsciencetravel When I wrote 'Lord of the Flies' - I had no idea it would even get published. William Golding evengetno-idealord I have always understood the Nazis because I am of that sort by nature. William Golding i-ambecausealwaysnature I am optimistic when I consider the spiritual dimension which the scientist's discipline forces him to ignore. William Golding i-amignoredisciplinespiritual I'd rather there wasn't an afterlife, really. I'd much rather not be me for thousands of years. William Golding rathermeafterlifeyears While I was still a boy, I came to the conclusion that there were three grades of thinking; and since I was later to claim thinking as my hobby, I came to an even stranger conclusion - namely, that I myself could not think at all. William Golding boymyselfthinkthinking I have been in many countries, and I have found there people examining their own love of life, sense of peril, their own common sense. The one thing they cannot understand is why that same love of life, sense of peril and above all common sense, is not invariably shared among their leaders and rulers. William Golding understandlovelifepeople I must have been an unsatisfactory child for grownups to deal with. I remember how incomprehensible they appeared to me at first, but not, of course, how I appeared to them. William Golding howchildmeremember
