"We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Sucks to your ass-mar!"
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?"
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Towards midnight the rain ceased and the clouds drifted away, so that the sky was scattered once more with the incredible lamps of stars. Then the breeze died too and there was no noise save the drip and tickle of water that ran out of clefts and spilled down, leaf by leaf, to the brown earth of the island. The air was cool, moist, and clear; and presently even the sound of the water was still. The beast lay huddled on the pale beach and the stains spread, inch by inch.

The edge of the lagoon became a streak of phosphorescence which advanced minutely, as the great wave of the tide flowed. The clear water mirrored the clear sky and the angular bright constellations. The line of phosphorescence bulged about the sand grains and little pebbles; it held them each in a dimple of tension, then suddenly accepted them with an inaudible syllable and moved on.

Along the shoreward edge of the shallows the advancing clearness was full of strange, moonbeam-bodied creatures with fiery eyes. Here and there a larger pebble clung to its own air and was covered with a coat of pearls. The tide swelled in over the rain-pitted sand and smoothed everything with a layer of silver. Now it touched the first of the stains that seeped from the broken body and the creatures made a moving patch of light as they gathered at the edge. The water rose further and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble. The strange, attendant creatures, with their fiery eyes and trailing vapours busied themselves round his head. The body lifted a fraction of an inch from the sand and a bubble of air escaped from the mouth with a wet plop. Then it turned gently in the water.

Somewhere over the darkened curve of the world the sun and moon were pulling; and the film of water on the earth planet was held, bulging slightly on one side while the solid core turned. The great wave of the tide moved further along the island and the water lifted. Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out towards the open sea."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"The water rose further and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble..."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Language fits over experience like a straight jacket."
— William Golding

"What kind of human person has a favorite eraser?"
— William Golding

"What I mean is . . . Maybe it's only us . . ."
— William Golding

"Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind's essential illness"
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"It was, perhaps, no situation from which to face a charging badger."
— William Golding (The Paper Men)

"The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western World. Simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straitjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence."
— William Golding

"The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers... Their scent spilled out into the air and took possession of the island.
"
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"''We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?''"
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies: Paris the Great, the Complete Works of World Literature 19)

"Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'"
— William Golding

"As lágrimas começaram a correr-lhe pelas faces e soluços sacudiram-no. Pela primeira vez, desde que chegara à ilha, entregou-se ao choro; grandes e convulsivos espasmos de tristeza pareciam torcer todo o seu corpo. Sua voz elevou-se sob a fumaça negra diante dos restos incendiados da ilha; contagiados por aquela emoção, os outros meninos começaram a tremer e a soluçar. No meio deles, com o corpo sujo, cabelo emaranhado e nariz escorrendo, Ralph chorou pelo fim da inocência, pela escuridão do coração humano e pela queda no ar do verdadeiro e sábio amigo chamado Porquinho.
O oficial, cercado por todo esse ruído, ficou emocionado e um pouco embaraçado. Virou-se para dar tempo a que se recuperassem. Esperou, deixando os olhos fixos no garboso cruzador a distância. "
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Language fits over experience like a straight jacket."
— 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 (Moving Target)

"I was an estructuralist at the age of seven, which is about the right age fot it"
— William Golding (Moving Target)

"If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?"
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"The officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph.
'We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?'
Ralph nodded.
The officer inspected the little scarecrow in front of him. The kid needed a bath, a haircut, a nose-wipe and a good deal of ointment.
'Nobody killed, I hope? Any dead bodies?'
'Only two. And they've gone.'
The officer leaned down and looked closely at Ralph.
'Two? Killed?'
Ralph nodded again. Behind him, the whole island was shuddering with flame. The officer knew, as a rule, when people were telling the truth. He whistled softly."
— William Golding

""Sucks to your ass-mar.""
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything."
— William Golding (Lord of the Flies)

"Perhaps the various burnings of the Alexandria Library were necessary, like those Australian Forest Fires without which the new seeds cannot burst theyre shells and make a young, healthy forest"
— William Golding (Moving Target)