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.

The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise.

the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.

Which is better -- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? Which is better -- to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?

At the moment of vision, the eyes see nothing.

Only one novel is a novel: that is a successful novel.

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.