William Goldman
William Goldman
William Goldmanis an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist, before turning to writing for film. He has won two Academy Awards for his screenplays, first for the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidand again for All the President's Men, about journalists who broke the Watergate scandal of President Richard Nixon. Both films starred Robert Redford...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth12 August 1931
CityHighland Park, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I can't keep my head above water one minute to the next: it's not just the parties and the goo-gooing with what's-her-name, I've got the decide how long the Five Hundredth Anniversary Parade is going to be and where does it start and when does it start and which nobleman gets to march in front of which other nobleman so that everyone's still speaking to me at the end of it, plus I've got a wife to murder and a country to frame for it, plus I've got to get the war going once that's all happened, and all this is stuff I've got to do myself. Here's what it all comes down to: I'm just swamped, Ty.
Sonny, true love is the greatest thing, in the world -- except for a nice MLT -- mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is lean and the tomato is ripe.
I have always liked it, it is still my favorite book. I do not like my writing, but I like this book. . . . I wish I liked my own writing more, but like all of us, I am trapped inside my own skin.
What are we going to do about Billy? That was the phrase that haunted me those first ten years. I pretended not to care, but secretly I was petrified. Everyone and everything was passing me by. I had no real friends, no single person who shared an equal interest in all games. I seemed busy, busy, busy, but I suppose, if pressed, I might have admitted that, for all my frenzy, I was very much alone.
Fact: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is, no question, the most popular thing I've ever been connected with. When I die, if the Times gives me an obit, it's going to be because of Butch.
Studio executives are intelligent, brutally overworked men and women who share one thing in common with baseball managers: they wake up every morning of the world with the knowledge that sooner or later they're going to get fired.
But this is life on earth, you can't have everything.
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.
I went back to my lounge chair. Alone.
I just don't want to get there and find out it stinks.
Anyway, here's the "good parts" version. S. Morgenstern wrote it. And my father read it to me. And now I give it to you. What you do with it will be of more than passing interest to us all.
Flaws would not only bring death but, far worse, humiliation.
Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.