William Goldman Quotes

I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids. ~ William Goldman

What can I do to improve my personal appearance?" "Start by bathing," her father said. ~ William Goldman

God grant you your quota of smiles. ~ William Goldman

I can live without love. And with that she left Westley alone. ~ William Goldman

We are men of action. Lies do not become us.
Westley ~ William Goldman

Westly, Westly, Westly, Westly, Westly,
darling Westly, adored Westly, sweet perfect Westly, whisper that I have a chance to win your love. And with that, she dared the bravest thing she'd ever done: she looked right into his eyes.
He closed the door in her face. ~ William Goldman

She loves you," the Prince cried. "She loves you still and you love her, so think of that
think of this too: in all this world, you might have been happy, genuinely happy. Not one couple in a century has that chance, not really, no matter what the storybooks say, but you could have had it, and so, I would think, no one will ever suffer a loss as great as you. ~ William Goldman

One final silly face.
One blessed responding laugh.
Fezzik closed his eyes then, thinking only this: thank God I was a giant after all.... ~ William Goldman

Do you love me, Westley? Is that it?'
He couldn't believe it. 'Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. If your love were - '
'I don't understand the first one yet,' Buttercup interrupted. She was starting to get very excited now. 'Let me get this straight. Are you saying my love is the size of a grain of sand and yours is this other thing? Images just confuse me so - is this universal business of yours bigger than my sand? Help me, Westley. I have the feeling we're on the verge of something just terribly important.'
'I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids….Is any of this getting through to you, Buttercup, or do you want me to go on for a while?'
'Never stop.'
'There has not been - '
'If you're teasing me, Westley, I'm just going to kill you.'
'How can you even dream I might be teasing?'
'Well, you haven't once said you loved me.'
'That's all you need? Easy. I love you. Okay? Want i ~ William Goldman

Buttercup's mother whirled on him. 'Did you forget to pay your taxes?' (This was after taxes. But everything is after taxes. Taxes were here even before stew.) ~ William Goldman

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

Fool!" cried the hunchback. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. ~ William Goldman

Is this a kissing book? ~ William Goldman

When I got discharged from the Army, I made a vow never to go back on an Army post. No big deal, just a simple lifelong vow. ~ William Goldman

The Sicilian's word was not just law, it was gospel. ~ William Goldman

Can you guess what I'm doing?"
"Cutting my heart out."
"You took mine when I was ten; I want yours now. We are lovers of justice, you and I - what could be more just than that? ~ William Goldman

As for the writers who have influenced me they are many. Hemingway, Chandler, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, William Goldman, Flannery O'Conner, Carson McCullers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and so many others. As a kid Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard. ~ Joe R. Lansdale

I don't know that you'll understand this, but once upon a time, long ago, I was a scholar and a marathon man, but that fella's gone now, dead I suppose, but I remember something he thought, which was that if you don't learn the mistakes of the past, you'll be doomed to repeat them. Well we've been making a mistake with people like you, because public trials are bullshit and executions are games for winners - all this time we should have been giving back pain. That's the real lesson. That's the loser's share, just pain, pure and simple, pain and torture, no hotshot lawyers running around trying to see that justice is done. I think we'd have a nice peaceful place here if all you warmakers knew you better not start something because if you lost, agony was just around the bend. That's what I'd like to give you. Agony. Not what you're suffering now. I mean a lifetime of it, 'cause that's the only degree of justice I think we're ready for down here yet, and I know any humanist might disagree with me too, but I don't think you will, because you had a lot to do with educating me, I'm like you now, except I'm better at it, because you're going to die and I've still got a long way to go. ~ William Goldman

Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. ~ William Goldman

No one could be following us yet?" the Spaniard asked. "No one," the Sicilian assured him. "It would be inconceivable." "Absolutely inconceivable?" "Absolutely, totally, and, in all other ways, inconceivable," the Sicilian reassured him. "Why do you ask? ~ William Goldman

Now what happens?" asked the man in black.
"We face each other as God intended," Fezzik said. "No tricks, no weapons, skill against skill alone."
"You mean you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword and we'll try to kill each other like civilized people, is that it? ~ William Goldman

Duhhhhhhh, tanks, Buttercup. ~ William Goldman

When I was starting out, William Goldman took me under his wing, and he's still the person I show pages to. ~ Aaron Sorkin

In Lovelock's view the earth was a 'super-organism,' a cybernetic feedback system that 'seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.' At the suggestion of his neighbor, author and screenwriter William Goldman, he called the system Gaia after the ancient Greek Earth goddess. ~ Steven Kotler

Someone would have to keep his wits, and he had assumed automatically that since Fezzik had so few, he would find retaining them not all that difficult. ~ William Goldman

It's not important, believe me; the past has a way of being past. ~ William Goldman

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

The Serpent, to my interpretation, was pain. ~ William Goldman

I must court her now,' said the Prince. 'Leave us alone for a minute.' He rode the white expertly down the hill.
Buttercup had never seen such a giant beast. Or such a rider.
'I am your Prince and you will marry me,' Humperdinck said.
Buttercup whispered, 'I am your servant and I refuse.'
'I am your Prince and you cannot refuse.'
'I am your loyal servant and I just did.'
'Refusal means death.'
'Kill me then.'
'I am your Prince and I'm not that bad - how could you rather be dead than married to me?'
'Because,' Buttercup said, 'marriage involves love, and that is not a pastime at which I excel. I tried once, and it went badly, and I am sworn never to love another.'
'Love?' said Prince Humperdinck. 'Who mentioned love? Not me, I can tell you. Look: there must always be a male heir to the throne of Florin. That's me. Once my father dies, there won't be an heir, just a king. That's me again. When that happens, I'll marry and have children until there is a son. So you can either marry me and be the richest and most powerful woman in a thousand miles and give turkeys away at Christmas and provide me a son, or you can die in terrible pain in the very near future. Make up your own mind.'
'I'll never love you.'
'I wouldn't want it if I had it.'
'Then by all means let us marry. ~ William Goldman

He always felt better when he could dole out pain alone. ~ William Goldman

I just know once you're over your emotional outbursts, you'll come up with-'
I mean if we even had a wheelbarrow, that would be something,' Westley said. ~ William Goldman

Butch: Now after we ... wait a minute ...
Sundance: What?
Butch: You didn't see Lefors out there?
Sundance: Lefors ? No.
Butch: Good. For a minute there I thought we were in trouble. ~ William Goldman

While he was watching the ships, Buttercup shoved him with all her strength remaining. Down went the man in black. "You can die too for all I care," she said, and then she turned away.
Words followed her. Whispered from afar, weak and warm and familiar. "As ... you ... wish ... ~ William Goldman

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

He's gaining on us," the Turk said. "That is also inconceivable," the Sicilian said. "Before I stole this boat we're in, I made many inquiries as to what was the fastest ship on all of Florin Channel and everyone agreed it was this one." "You're right," the Turk agreed, staring back. "He isn't gaining on us. He's just getting closer, that's all. ~ William Goldman

Groin' is a funny word," Babe said quietly. "I don't know the German for it, but I'm sure you do." He began to talk more quickly then, because he could tell Szell was starting to die. "Oh, maybe you didn't see it in the papers, but they've made this fabulous theological discovery, do you know what they've found? People don't go to heaven or hell, they all go to one spot first, sort of a way station, and that's were things happen, because, you probably won't believe this, but some people on this earth have been known to do bad things to other people, innocent people, and at this way station, the innocent people wait, and then when their savager comes, they get to exact a little portion of revenge. God says revenge is good for the soul. Do you know who's waiting for you, Mr. Szell? All the Jews. They're all there, and you know what else? They've all got drills, like you used on me - remember how you said how wonderful it was, anyone could learn that, how to use them? Well, they have and they're waiting, and I don't know about you, but I think it's gonna be terrific."

Szell was almost dead now, but Babe just had time to get it in.

Have a swell eternity," Babe said... ~ William Goldman

Hello there," Inigo hollered when he could wait no more.
The man in black glanced up and grunted.
"I've been watching you."
The man in black nodded.
"Slow going," Inigo said.
"Look, I don't mean to be rude," the man in black said finally, "but I'm rather busy just now, so try not to distract me."
"I'm sorry," Inigo said.
The man in black grunted again.
"I don't suppose you could speed things up," Inigo said.
"If you want to speed things up so much," the man in black said, clearly quite angry now, "you could lower a rope or a tree branch or find some other helpful thing to do. ~ William Goldman

Mawidge is a dweam wiffin a dweam. 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

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. [ Inigo Montoya ] ~ William Goldman

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

I would love to say that I wrote (Good Will Hunting). Here is the truth. In my obit it will say that I wrote it. People don't want to think those two cute guys wrote it. What happened was, they had the script. It was their script. They gave it to Rob [Reiner] to read, and there was a great deal of stuff in the script dealing with the F.B.I. trying to use Matt Damon for spy work because he was so brilliant in math. Rob said, "Get rid of it." They then sent them in to see me for a day - I met with them in New York - and all I said to them was, "Rob's right. Get rid of the F.B.I. stuff. Go with the family, go with Boston, go with all that wonderful stuff." And they did. I think people refuse to admit it because their careers have been so far from writing, and I think it's too bad. I'll tell you who wrote a marvelous script once, Sylvester Stallone. Rocky's a marvelous script. God, read it, it's wonderful. It's just got marvelous stuff. And then he stopped suddenly because it's easier being a movie star and making all that money than going in your pit and writing a script. But I did not write [Good Will Hunting], alas. I would not have written the "It's not your fault" scene. I'm going to assume that 148 percent of the people in this room have seen a therapist. I certainly have, for a long time. Hollywood always has this idea that it's this shrink with only one patient. I mean, that scene with Robin Williams gushing and Matt Damon and they're hugging, "It's not your fault, it's n ~ William Goldman

And 5:25 when the screaming started outside the main gate. ~ William Goldman

You would never in this world have beaten him. But I tell you this: he would never in this world have beaten you. ~ William Goldman

He had risked his life and now it was walking away from him, hand-in-hand with a Ruffian prince. ~ William Goldman

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

A little maybe; 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, and you never heard.' ~ Westley ~ William Goldman

Myself am often surprised at life's little quirks ~ William Goldman

Two things happened:

(1) The door, quite clearly, locked.
(2) Out went the candles on the high walls.

"DON'T BE FRIGHTENED!" Inigo screamed.

"I'M NOT, I'M NOT!" Fezzik screamed. ~ William Goldman

The hollowness was in his arms and the world was snowing. ~ William Goldman

You're certainly blooming, Billy. Before my very eyes. I just don't know into what. ~ William Goldman

He would find the six-fingered man. He would go up to him. He would say simply, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die," and then, oh then, the duel. ~ William Goldman

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

The author and screenwriter William Goldman says that "the key to all story endings is to give the audience what it wants, but not in the way it expects. ~ Jon Steel

I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. ~ William Goldman

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. ~ William Goldman

If you write movies, you never know who the enemy is. Someone is going to fuck you, that's a given. ~ William Goldman

You can never trust what you read. ~ William Goldman

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. ~ William Goldman

You miserable vomitous mass, ~ William Goldman

The writing is never what takes the most time. It's trying to figure what you're going to put down that fills the days. With anger at your own ineptitude, with frustration that nothing is happening inside your head, with panic that maybe nothing will ever happen inside your head, with blessed little moments that somehow knit together so that you can begin to visualize a scene. ~ William Goldman

The sun was rising behind her now; she could feel the heat on her back, and it gave her courage. ~ 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

Why was it worth so much of your life?" "Because I could not fail him again." "Fail who?" "My father. ~ William Goldman

Westley: This is true love - you think this happens every day? ~ William Goldman

With any luck at all," he said, "we should soon be safely in the Fire Swamp. ~ William Goldman

There is no room in my body for anything but you. ~ William Goldman

The only actual change that had come over him in the past years was that, for some reason, his impediment had gotten worse. "Mawidge," he said. "Vewy old. ~ William Goldman

The old man nodded. "Now I can die." She glanced at him. "Don't." Her tone was surprisingly tender, and probably she sensed how important he really was to her, because when he did die, two years further on, she went right after, and most of the people who knew her well agreed it was the sudden lack of opposition that undid her. ~ William Goldman

The first morning after Westley's departure, Buttercup thought she was entitled to do nothing more than sit around moping and feeling sorry for herself. After all, the love of her life had fled, life had no meaning, how could you face the future, et cetera, et cetera. ~ William Goldman

How can you even dream I might be teasing?
Well, you haven't once said you loved me.
That's all you need? Easy. I love you. Okay? Want it louder? I love you. Spell it out, should I? I ell-oh-vee-ee why-oh-you. Want it backward? You love I.
You are teasing me now; aren't you?
A little maybe ~ William Goldman

All right. Your name before mine. You are the greatest sword maker, you deserve to come first."
"Have a good trip back."
"WHY WON'T YOU?"
"Because, my friend Yeste, you are very famous and very rich, and so you should be, because you make
wonderful weapons. But you must also make them for any fool who happens along. I am poor, and no
one knows me in all the world except you and Inigo, but I do not have to suffer fools."
"You are an artist," Yeste said.
"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

you were already more beautiful than anything I dared to dream. In our years apart, my imaginings did their best to improve on you perfection. At night, your face was forever behind my eyes. And now I see that that vision who kept me company in my loneliness was a hag compared to the beauty now before me." –Westley

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

Back, Witch - "
"I'm not a witch, I'm your wife - ~ William Goldman

The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love you. Like that.) ~ William Goldman

There's death coming up, and you better understand this:some of the wrong people die.Be ready for it. ~ William Goldman

Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all. ~ William Goldman

Who says life is fair, where is that written? ~ William Goldman

I would describe her more as a knitter than a doer. ~ William Goldman

She fell fast and she fell hard, but what did that matter, since she would have gladly dropped a thousand feet onto a bed of nails if Westley had been waiting at the bottom. Down, ~ William Goldman

People don't remember me. Really. It's not a paranoid thing; I just have this habit of slipping through memories. It doesn't bother me all that much, except I guess that's a lie; it does. For some reason, I test very high on forgettability. ~ William Goldman

Aaron would not come out
aaron entered into agony. ~ 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

Being a screenwriter is not enough for a full creative life. ~ William Goldman

Liar! Liar!" shrieked suddenly from the now open trap door.
Miracle Max whirled. "Back, Witch
" he commanded.
"I'm not a witch, I'm your wife
" she was advancing on him now, an ancient tiny fury
"and after what you've just done I don't think I want to be that any more
~ William Goldman

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

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

And when she at last came out, her eyes were dry. Her parents stared up from their silent breakfast at her. They both started to rise but she put a hand out, stopped them. 'I can care for myself, please,' and she set about getting some food. They watched her closely.
In point of fact, she had never looked as well. She had entered her room as just an impossibly lovely girl. The woman who emerged was a trifle thinner, a great deal wiser, and an ocean sadder. This one understood the nature of pain, and beneath the glory of her features, there was character, and a sure knowledge of suffering.
She was eighteen. She was the most beautiful woman in a hundred years. She didn't seem to care.
'You're all right?' her mother asked.
Buttercup sipped her cocoa. 'Fine,' she said.
'You're sure?' her father wondered.
'Yes,' Buttercup replied. There was a very long pause. 'But I must never love again.'

She never did. ~ 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

Life isn't just fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all. -William Goldman ~ Ann Brashares

Westley, my passion, my sweet, my only, my own. Come back, come back. I shall kill myself otherwise. Yours in torment, Buttercup." She looked at Humperdinck. "Well? Do you think I'm throwing myself at him?"
"It does seem a bit forward," the Prince admitted. ~ William Goldman

Well, why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place? ~ William Goldman

Look, are you just fiddling around with me or what?"
"I just want you to feel you're doing well. I hate for people o die embarrassed. ~ William Goldman

For there was now a wall of trees blocking any progress-
-and Inigo would not stop bleeding-
-and Westley would not start breathing-
-and Buttercup would not stop staring at him, her face lit with the hope that of all the creatures left stomping the earth, he, Fezzik, was the only one that could save her beloved and thereby stop her heart from shredding.
Fezzik at this heroic moment knew what he wanted most to do: suck his thumb forever. But since that was out of the question, he did the next best thing. He made a poem.
Fezzik's ~ William Goldman

Woman," Westley roared, "you are the property of the Dread Pirate Roberts and you ... do ... what ... you're ... told! ~ William Goldman

Inside and out, Westley's world was ripping apart and he could do nothing but crack along with it. ~ William Goldman

The Duchess set about studying Annette and shortly found her adversary's tragic flaw.
Chocolate. ~ William Goldman

And Inigo felt, for the first time since the dying, such happiness. It had fled from him, happiness, and when you spend years without, you forget that no blessing compares ... ~ William Goldman

Let's look on the bright side: we're having an adventure, Fezzik, and most people live and die without being as lucky as we are. ~ William Goldman

What are you so afraid oft"
Fezzik raised his great head and managed to look at them. "Getting water up my nose," he whispered. "I hate it so much." And then he buried his head again. ~ William Goldman

Be careful, this is the greatest fencer since the death of the Wizard of Corsica. Do not burgle. ~ William Goldman