We're not savages. We're English.

How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?

If I blow the conch and they don't come back; then we've had it. We shan't keep the fire going. We'll be like animals. We'll never be rescued." "If you don't blow, we'll soon be animals anyway.

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.

We have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.

This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we'll have fun.

One's intelligence may march about and about a problem, but the solution does not come gradually into view. One moment it is not. The next it is there.