Screenwriting : WRITER ON WRITING: William Goldman Screenplay and Writing Quotes by Bill Costantini

" Academy Award Winner...Nobody Knows Anything"

During an interview with Charlie Rose, Bill Goldman said those would be the first two lines of his obituary. So I did what he said, and fulfilled his prophecy. William Goldman sure is a great all-around human and writer: a novelist first, a screenwriter second, and a teacher third. A survivor of a very tragic upbringing, he battled and he endured, and he left the physical world as a great man. The pains of his early life never left his eyes, and the joys of humanity never left his heart. And in each of his stories, his characters had those eyes and heart, too. He was wrong about one thing, though, at least in my eyes and heart: there is no obituary for Bill Goldman, and he will be alive in our world forever. Thank you, William Goldman. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. G!

Here is a Baker's Dozen of my favorite William Goldman quotes, on writing and from his stories, and a link to the interview with Charlie Rose; a link to a Writer's Guild Foundation interview; and the best link to William Goldman quotes. Please add any other quotes that may be your favorites, or other links that might be your favorites, too.

"I never saw a screenplay until I was 33 years old. If you're a young screenwriter now, you can only write what you give a shit about." William Goldman interview.

“Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” The Princess Bride.

“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, Adventures in the Screen Trade.

"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!" The Princess Bride

"I write to balance the teeter-totter of my childhood. Graham Greene once said one of the great things: an unhappy childhood is a writer's goldmine." William Goldman, Which Lie Did I Tell: More Adventures in the Screen Trade.

“In the kitchen, Chub clung to the wall, made no sound whatsoever, but his mouth opened and closed, opened and closed, as he told himself, kept telling himself, that life was material, everything was material - you just had to live long enough to see how to use it.” William Goldman, The Colour of Light

“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. If you’re trying a screenplay, you know it’s never going to be Bergman. If it’s a novel, well, what kind of a novelist can you hope to be when Dostoevsky was there before you. And Dickens and Cervantes and all the other masters that led you to the prison of your desk. But if you’re a writer, that’s what you must do, and in order to accomplish anything at all, at the rock bottom of it all is your confidence. You tell yourself lies and you force them into belief: Hey, you suckers, I’m going to do it this one time. I’m going to tell you things you never knew. I’ve—got—secrets!” William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade.

“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 war makers knew you better not start something because if you lost, agony was just around the bend.” Marathon Man.

“They have an expression in prize fighting: “Everyone has a plan until they’ve been hit.” Well my friend, you’ve just been hit. The getting up is up to you.” Ghost in the Darkness

“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?" The Princess Bride.

"The writers that write Westerns are in the business of perpetuating myths that are false to begin with. Most of the movie was made up. I used certain facts. Other than that, it's all bits and pieces. All made up." William Goldman, after spending eight years to research Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

“If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbing him, I’d stop robbing him.” Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

"I was at a party once, and, uh, Liddy put his hand over a candle, and he kept it there. He kept it right in the flame until his flesh was burned. Somebody said, "What's the trick?" And Liddy said, "The trick is not minding." Deep Throat, All the President's Men

And major belated kudos to Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, and Howard Simons, Harry Rosenfeld, Marilyn Berger, Ben Bradley, Katharine Graham and the Graham family, who lived by the slogan of the Washington Post, "Democracy Dies in Darkness," and who helped save America during some really dark times.

The Writer's Guild Foundation Interview with William Goldman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=nCs4gdt-mPY

William Goldman Interview With Charlie Rose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uijCd9YPz9w

Quotes from William Goldman scripts, and thoughts by William Goldman

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/12521.William_Goldman?page=1