The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it.
Interpretation
Writers should detach from their original intentions to allow readers to find their own meaning in a work.
This quote by William Golding suggests that a writer's understanding of their work should not limit the interpretation by readers. Once a piece of writing is completed, the author's perspective fades into the background as the text takes on a life of its own, influenced by the diverse interpretations of its audience. It emphasizes the value of creative freedom and the subjective experience of literature.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to encourage students to allow their characters to develop freely.
Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things.
The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won't tell.
Maybe, he said hesitantly, maybe there is a beast. The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement. You, Simon? You believe in this? I don't know, said Simon. His heartbeats were choking him. [...] Ralph shouted. Hear him! He's got the conch! What I mean is . . . maybe it's only us. Nuts! That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum.
The mask was a thing on it's own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-conciousness.
Man produces evil as a bee produces honey.
Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state.
The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?
I never go outside unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.
The idea of songwriting is a transformative thing, and what I do with songwriting is take situations that are quite ordinary and transform them in some way. Apart from things like the murder ballads, the songs I write, at their core, are quite ordinary human concerns, but the process of writing about them transforms them into something else.
Each of his phrases was rather like a little ancient island, inundated by a miniature sea of whiskey.
Never are voices so beautiful as on a winter's evening, when dusk almost hides the body, and they seem to issue from nothingness with a note of intimacy seldom heard by day.
Painting is marvelous; it makes you happier and more patient. Afterwards you do not have black fingers as with writing, but blue and red ones.
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