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.
William GoldingDon't get me wrong. I have nothing against this as a method, but it is not what English writers do.
William GoldingWe have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.
William GoldingExperimental novels are sometimes terribly clever and very seldom read. But the story that appeals to the child sitting on your knee is the one that satisfies the curiosity we all have about what happened then, and then, and then. This is the final restriction put on the technique of telling a story. A basic thing called story is built into the human condition. It's what we are; it's something to which we react.
William Golding