Top 167 Quotes & Sayings by William Goldman

If you think of human experience as a pie, then the wedge Hollywood is reflecting now is getting smaller and smaller.

Coming from where I came from, the Midwest, in the era I was born, the '30s, movies were glorious fun - Bette Davis dying or whatever. But whatever they were, they were not serious.

Stephen King is one of my all-time heroes, so, of course, the pressure never lets up. Every second, you hope he'll like it. I remember getting a call from him after he read my script for 'Hearts in Atlantis.' He liked it. Talk about relief.

Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.

But this is life on earth, you can't have everything.

It's always true, and in all the arts. When one guy's terrific, there will be a lot of other terrific guys around. And this last decade, the '90s, has been a period of very low talent.

I don't want the power. When a project is given to me, and I say yes, I'm gonna oblige everybody who has the power to try to make it work.

If you're going to abridge a book in the author's own words, you can't go sticking your own in.

Hollywood is a pretty edgy place.

One of my great breaks is I have only done work I wanted to do.

Being a screenwriter is not enough for a full creative life.

We had terrible trouble finding a Buttercup because she had to be so beautiful. We had all kinds of pretty girls come in, but they weren't this staggering thing.

One way an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print.

There's only three movies I've been involved with in my whole life that I really care about. 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' was one, and 'Princess Bride' was the second, and 'Hearts in Atlantis' is the third.

Never argue with your wife about hostility when she's a certified Freudian.

The easiest thing to do on earth is not write.

As far as the filmmaking process is concerned, stars are essentially worthless - and absolutely essential.

There is one crucial rule that must be followed in all creative meetings. Never speak first. At least at the start, your job is to shut up.

Yes, I am a failed playwright. I had three shows on Broadway by the time I was 30. They all flopped, and I fled.

Life is pain, highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.

I haven't done much rereading or rewatching stuff I've written over the years, but I did look at 'Misery' before I started the play. I liked it. Not much I would change.

Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it, putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before.

You can never trust what you read.

We are men of action, lies do not become us.

I had two little daughters - I think they were 7 and 4 at the time - and I said, 'I'll write you a story. What do you want it to be about?' One of them said 'a princess' and the other one said 'a bride.' I said, 'That'll be the title.'

Nobody knows anything.

He was the mighty Fezzik, lover of rhymes, and you did not give up, no matter what.

Love is many things none of them logical.

I write out of revenge.

Enough about my beauty," Buttercup said. "Everybody always talks about how beautiful I am. I've got a mind, Westley. Talk about that.

Anything there is that I can do for you, I will do for you; anything there is that I cannot do, I will learn to do.

Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the impossibility of ever getting it right. No matter how diamond-bright your ideas are dancing in your brain, on paper they are earthbound.

Whoever invented the meeting must have had Hollywood in mind. I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings: Best Meeting of the Year, Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting.

If all that's going on in your scenes is what's going on in your scenes, think about it a long time.

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

Who says life is fair, where is that written?

You have to protect your writing time. You have to protect it to the death.

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.

Life is difficult. Anyone who says different is trying to sell you something.

Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.

I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.

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.

Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. If this is true, or if you are one of the people who believe this is true, then the one universal way to enjoy life is still the same, which is to learn to be grateful that it is not worse!!

True love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops.

Cynics are simply thwarted romantics.

But when a girl gives a boy a dead squid - that had to mean something.

No more rhymes now I mean it!” “Anybody want a peanut?” “AAHH!

One of the things that happens to careers out here is that people destroy themselves because they begin to think they're wonderful. They begin to think they know what they're doing, and the minute that happens, it's over.

Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.

He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using.

One of the easiest things in the world is not to write... If it were easy, everyone would do it.

Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.

It’s an accepted fact that all writers are crazy, even the normal ones are weird.

You are wonderful, Father.""I'm more than wonderful, how dare you insult me.

When I was your age, television was called books.

I've been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn't listen. Every time you said 'Farm Boy do this' you thought I was answering 'As you wish' but that's only because you were hearing wrong. 'I love you' was what it was, but you never heard.

I’ll tell you the truth and its up to you to live with it.

A good writer is not someone who knows how to write- but how to rewrite

"We’ll never survive!” “Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has."

He held up a book then. “I'm going to read it to you for relax.” “Does it have any sports in it?” “Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True Love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest Ladies. Snakes. Spiders... Pain. Death. Brave men. Cowardly men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.” “Sounds okay,” I said and I kind of closed my eyes.