William Goldman Quotes

The hollowness was in his arms and the world was snowing.

~ William Goldman

Nobody knows anything...... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one.

~ William Goldman

I understand everything,” he said.“You understand nothing, but it really doesn’t matter, since what you mean is, you’re glad to see me, just as I’m glad to see you because no more loneliness.”“That’s what I mean,” said Fezzik.

~ William Goldman

The dweam of wuv wapped wiffin the gweater dweam of everwasting west. Eternity is our fwiend, wemember that, and wuv wiw fowwow you fowever.

~ William Goldman

Princess. By S. Morgenstern. It's a kids' classic. Tell him I'll quiz him on it when I'm back next week and that he doesn't have to like it or anything, but if he doesn't, tell him I'll kill myself. Give him that message exactly please; I wouldn't want to apply any extra pressure or anything.

~ William Goldman

I am as devoted to adventure now as then, and that’s never going to stop.

~ William Goldman

Buttercup dried her tears and began to smile. She took a deep breath, heaved a sigh. It was all part of growing up. You got these little quick passions, you blinked, and they were gone. You forgave faults, found perfection, fell madly; then the next day the sun came up and it was over. Chalk it up to experience, old girl, and get on with the morning.

~ William Goldman

We are men of action. Lies do not become us.

~ William Goldman

Who are you?No one of consequence.I must know.Get used to disappointment.

~ William Goldman

You could concentrate much more deeply when you were alone with agony.

~ William Goldman

Look. (Grown-ups skip this paragraph) I'm not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending. I already said in the very first line how it was my favorite in all the world. But there's a lot of bad stuff coming.

~ William Goldman

Is this a kissing book?

~ William Goldman

No. Not yet. A craftsman only. But I dream to be an artist. I pray that someday, if I work with enough care, if I am very very lucky, I will make a weapon that is a work of art. Call me an artist then, and I will answer.

~ William Goldman

The tears that kept Buttercup company the remainder of the day were not at all like those that had blinded her into the tree trunk. Those were noisy and hot; they pulsed. These were silent and steady and all they did was remind her that she wasn’t good enough. She was seventeen, and every male she’d ever known had crumbled at her feet and it meant nothing. The one time it really mattered, she wasn’t good enough.

~ William Goldman

[Prince Humperdinck] was seventy-five minutes away from his first female murder, and he wondered if he could get his fingers to her throat before even the start of a scream. He had been practicing on giant sausages all the afternoon and had the movements down pretty pat, but then, giant sausages weren’t necks and all the wishing in the world wouldn’t make them so.

~ William Goldman

I must be overtired', Buttercup managed. 'The excitement and all.''Rest then', her mother cautioned. 'Terrible things can happen when you're overtired. I was overtired the night your father proposed.

~ William Goldman

Who can know when his world is going to change? Who can tell before it happens, that every priorexperience, all the years, were a preparation for . . . nothing.

~ William Goldman

That's all you need? Easy. I love you.Okay? Want it louder?I love you. Spell it out schould I l-o-v-e y-o-u. Want it backwards You love I.

~ William Goldman

My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!

~ William Goldman

I've been in the revenge buisness for so long, now that it's over I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.

~ William Goldman

Give the reader what they want, just not the way they expect it.

~ William Goldman

This book says 'life isn't fair' and I'm telling you, one and all, you betterbelieve it. I got a fat spoiled son�he's not gonna nab Miss Rheingold. And he's always gonna be fat, evenif he gets skinny he'll still be fat and he'll still be spoiled and life will never be enough to make himhappy, and that's my fault maybe�make it all my fault, if you want�the point is, we're not created equal,for the rich they sing, life isn't fair. I got a cold wife; she's brilliant, she's stimulating, she's terrific; there'sno love; that's okay too, just so long as we don't keep expecting everything to somehow even out for usbefore we die.

~ William Goldman

It must have been fifty seconds before Doc died.Long time.

~ William Goldman

Love is many things, none of them logical.

~ William Goldman

You had to admire a guy who called his own new book a classic before it was published and anyone else had a chance to read it.

~ William Goldman

Flailing and thrashing, Buttercup wept and tossed and paced and wept some more, and there have been three great cases of jealousy since David of Galilee was first afflicted with the emotion when he could no longer stand the fact that his neighbor Saul's cactus outshone his own. (Originally, jealousy pertained solely to plants, other people's cactus or ginkgoes, or, later, when there was grass, grass, which is why, even to this day, we say that someone is green with jealousy.) Buttercup's case rated a close fourth on the all-time list.It was a very long and very green night.

~ William Goldman

How can the removal of beauty from a world so lacking in beauty be anything but tragic?

~ William Goldman

Is it safe?

~ William Goldman

Screenplays are structure, and that’s all they are. The quality of writing—which is crucial in almost every other form of literature—is not what makes a screenplay work. Structure isn’t anything else but telling the story, starting as late as possible, starting each scene as late as possible. You don’t want to begin with “Once upon a time,” because the audience gets antsy.

~ William Goldman