Out of the firelight everything was black and silver, black island, rocks and trees carved cleanly out of the sky and silver river with a flashing light rippling back and forth along the lip of the fall.

— William Golding

... People were never quite what you thought they were.

— William Golding

Perhaps there is a beast...maybe it's only us.

— William Golding

Perhaps the various burnings of the Alexandria Library were necessary, like those Australian Forest Fires without which the new seeds cannot burst their shells and make a young, healthy forest.

— William Golding

Philosophy and religion - what are they when the wind blows and the water gets up in lumps?

— William Golding

Ralph chose the firm strip as a path because he needed to think, and only here could he allow his feet to move without having to watch them. Suddenly, pacing by the water, he was overcome with astonishment. He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet.

— William Golding

Roger edged past the chief, only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder. The yelling ceased, and Amnesic lay looking up in quiet terror. Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.

— William Golding

Sleep is where we touch what is better left unexamined. There, the whole of life is bundled up, dwindled. There the carefully hoarded and enjoyed personality, our only treasure and at the same time our only defense must die into the ultimate truth of things, the black lightning that splits and destroys all, the positive, unquestionable nothingness.

— William Golding

The greatest ideas are the simplest.

— William Golding

The greatest pleasure is not - say - sex or geometry. It is just understanding. And if you can get people to understand their own humanity - well, that's the job of the writer.

— William Golding