Quote #14

Ralph lay flat and looked up at the palm trees and the sky. 'Meetings. Don't we love meetings? Every day. Twice a day. We talk.' He got on one elbow. 'I bet if I blew the conch this minute, they'd come running. Then we'd be, you know, very solemn, and someone would say we ought to build a jet, or a submarine, or a TV set. When the meeting was over they'd work for five minutes, then wander off or go hunting.'

More from William Golding

  1. 'How can you expect to be rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper?'
  2. Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry- threw it to miss. The stone, that token of preposterous time, bounded five …
  3. Ralph waved the conch. 'Shut up! Wait! Listen!' He went on in the silence, borne on in his triumph. 'There's another thing. We can help the…
  4. Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye socket white, then rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black …
  5. Either the wandering breezes or perhaps the decline of the sun allowed a little coolness to lie under the trees. The boys felt it and stirr…
  6. The chant was audible but at that distance still wordless. Behind Jack walked the twins, carrying a great stake on their shoulders. The gut…
  7. 'This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grown-ups come to fetch us we'll have fun.'
  8. His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge th…

All William Golding quotes