William Goldman Quotes

81 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

William Goldman
I seemed busy, busy, busy, but I suppose, if pressed, I might have admitted that, for all my frenzy, I was very much alone.

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

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

William Goldman
I love you, Buttercup said. I know this must come as something of a surprise, since all I've ever done is scorn you and degrade you and taunt you, but I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more.

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
Fezzik's in trouble, bubble bubble, His brain is just not in the pink, His mind is rubble, rub-a-dub double, Because everyone needs him to think.

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

William Goldman
I have come to terms with my life, and that is my affair - i am not cold, i swear, but i have decided certain things, it is best for me to ignore emotion; i have not been happy dealing with it.

William Goldman
Tr...ooooo...luv...' Fezzik grabbed onto Inigo in panic and they both pivoted, staring at the man in black, who was silent again. '"True love," he said,' Inigo cried. 'You heard him - true love is what he wants to come back for. That's certainly worthwhile.' 'Sonny, don't you tell me what's worthwhile - true love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops. Everybody knows that.

William Goldman
And what have I done?" What? WHAT?...You've stolen them." With that, Cornelia fled, but Buttercup understood; she knew who "them" was. The boys. The beef-witted featherbrained rattledskulled clodpated dim-domed noodle-noggined sapheaded lunk-knobbed BOYS.

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
I guess the most amazing thing about crying though is that when you're in it, you think it'll go on forever but it never really lasts half what you think. Not in terms of real time. In terms of real emotions, it's worse than you think, but not by the clock.

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
My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

William Goldman
And that's when she put her book down. And looked at me. And said it: "Life isn't fair, Bill. we tell our children that it is, but it's a terrible thing to do. It's not only a lie, it's a cruel lie. Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it's never going to be.

William Goldman
Buttercup's mother hesitated, then put her stew spoon down. (This was after stew, but so is everything. When the first man first clambered from the slime and made his first home on land, what he had for supper that first night was stew.)

William Goldman
It's one of my biggest memories of my father reading. I had pneumonia, remember, but I was a little better now, and madly caught up in the book, and one thing you know when you're ten is that, no matter what, there's gonna be a happy ending. They can sweat all they want to scare you, the authors, but back of it all you know, you just have no doubt, that in the long run justice is going to win out.

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
Westley: This is true love — you think this happens every day?

William Goldman
I am your Prince and you will marry me," Humperdinck said. Buttercup whispered, "I am your servant and I refuse." "I am you Prince and you cannot refuse." "I am your loyal servant and I just did." "Refusal means death." "Kill me then.

William Goldman
There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C...(before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy.... Well, this one left them all behind.

William Goldman
Stars, you have to understand, play gods. They have be perfect. They can't have a flaw unless they can wink at the audience and say, 'I'm really wonderful.'

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

William Goldman