Top 100 William Goldman Quotes
#1. Give the reader what they want, just not the way they expect it.
William Goldman
#2. Any experience is profitable if you allow it to be, all actions are profitable, no matter how badly you may suffer from them.
William Goldman
#4. 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
#5. I could give you my word as a Spaniard," Inigo said.
"No good," the man in black replied. "I've known too many Spaniards.
William Goldman
#7. Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
William Goldman
#8. Well, why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place?
William Goldman
#9. For the first time in my life, I became actively interested in a book. Me the sports fanatic, me the game freak, me the only ten-year-old in Illinois with a hate on for the alphabet wanted to know what happened next.
William Goldman
#10. Inigo looked at him. "You mean you'll forgive me completely for saving your life if I completely forgive you for saving mine?"
"You're my friend, my only one."
"Pathetic, that's what we are," Inigo said.
"Athletic.
William Goldman
#11. 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
#13. 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
#14. 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
#15. I'm not about to argue with a full professor, but if you ever have a really unbreakable case of insomnia, do yourself a favor and start reading Chapter Three of the uncut version.
William Goldman
#16. It's an accepted fact that all writers are crazy; even the normal ones are weird.
William Goldman
#17. 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
#18. Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
William Goldman
#19. You always know what to do, you always know exactly what to do, you always do exactly what's right for you, and the rest of the world can go hang..
William Goldman
#20. There are always too few perfect breasts in this world; leave yours alone.
William Goldman
#21. 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
#23. Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all.
William Goldman
#25. Your father is dying."
"Drat!" said the Prince, "That means I shall have to get married.
William Goldman
#26. 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
#27. There were some things you did, no matter what, and when a friend needed help, you helped them.
William Goldman
#28. 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.
William Goldman
#29. 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
#31. Don't come out all that well a lot of the time, but that can't be helped.
William Goldman
#33. When was the last time you read a book? The truth now. And picture books don't count-I mean something with print in it.
William Goldman
#34. Guess?" Vizzini cried. "I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.
William Goldman
#35. Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited.
William Goldman
#36. You could concentrate much more deeply when you were alone with agony.
William Goldman
#37. As far as the filmmaking process is concerned, stars are essentially worthless - and absolutely essential.
William Goldman
#38. We have more than hope," Buttercup said. "There is true love.
William Goldman
#39. 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
#40. The Princess Bride
S. Morgenstern's
Classic Tale of True Love
and High Adventure
You had to admire a guy who called his own new book a classic before it was published and anyone had a chance to read it.
William Goldman
#41. 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
#42. 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
#43. You don't want to be rude but you have to be careful - there are a lot of strange people out there.
(Goldman attributes this quote to Cliff Robertson.)
William Goldman
#44. 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
#45. Being a screenwriter is not enough for a full creative life.
William Goldman
#46. Why was it worth so much of your life?" "Because I could not fail him again." "Fail who?" "My father.
William Goldman
#47. I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more.
William Goldman
#48. This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.
William Goldman
#49. The Duchess set about studying Annette and shortly found her adversary's tragic flaw.
Chocolate.
William Goldman
#50. 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
#52. He was the mighty Fezzik, lover of rhymes, and you did not give up, no matter what.
William Goldman
#53. 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
#54. Inside and out, Westley's world was ripping apart and he could do nothing but crack along with it.
William Goldman
#57. Inigo Montoya: He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using.
William Goldman
#58. 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
#59. How can the removal of beauty from a world so lacking in beauty be anything but tragic?
William Goldman
#60. I don't like killing a girl," the Spaniard said.
"God does it all the time; if it doesn't bother Him, don't let it worry you.
William Goldman
#61. Woman," Westley roared, "you are the property of the Dread Pirate Roberts and you ... do ... what ... you're ... told!
William Goldman
#62. Who can know when his world is going to change? who can tell before it happens ... the doors that were slamming shut while others slid into the clear.Who can sense revelation in the wind? What happened was just this :I got hooked on the story.
William Goldman
#64. If there's ever a question about anything, you can always count on me to get it wrong.
William Goldman
#65. Not so much wonderful as perfect," she replied. "Kind of flawless. More or less magnificent. Without blemish. Rather on the ideal side." She looked at the Prince. "Am I being helpful?"
"I
William Goldman
#66. You seem a decent fellow," Inigo said. "I hate to kill you."
You seem a decent fellow," answered the man in black. "I hate to die.
William Goldman
#68. Let me get this thing straight, Inigo
we had SCRAPS for dinner? I'M in YOUR fantasy and the best you can come up with is SCRAPS?" She turned toward the door then. "You have no chance of winning my heart.
William Goldman
#69. At 8:23 there seemed every chance of a lasting alliance starting between Florin and Guilder.
At 8:24 the two nations were very close to war.
William Goldman
#70. Since the invention of the kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.
William Goldman
#71. We'll never survive!"
"Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
William Goldman
#72. 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
#73. You're alive!" Fezzik cried.
The man in black sat immobile, like a ventriloquist's dummy, just his mouth moving. "That is perhaps the most childishly obvious remark I have ever come across ...
William Goldman
#75. 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
William Goldman
#76. Yes, I am a failed playwright. I had three shows on Broadway by the time I was 30. They all flopped, and I fled.
William Goldman
#77. 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
#78. I am as devoted to adventure now as then, and that's never going to stop.
William Goldman
#79. Why do you wear a mask and hood?"
I think everybody will in the near future," was the man in black's reply. "They're terribly comfortable.
William Goldman
#80. Westley: This is true love - you think this happens every day?
William Goldman
#81. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. [ Inigo Montoya ]
William Goldman
#82. The boys. The beef-witted featherbrained rattleskulled clod-pated dim-domed noodle-noggined sapheaded lunk-knobbed boys. How could anybody accuse her of stealing them? Why would anybody want them anyway?
William Goldman
#83. That explains it." Actually, of course, it didn't explain anything, but whenever doctors are confused about something, which is really more frequently than any of us would do well to think about, they always snatch at something in the vicinity of the case and add, "That explains it.
William Goldman
#84. We are one heartbeat," and she kissed him softly and said, "And will always be.
William Goldman
#85. 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
#86. Later, years later even, sometimes I might say, "How about the duel on the cliff with Inigo and the man in black?" and my father would gruff and grumble and get the book and lick his thumb, turning pages till the mighty battle began.
William Goldman
#87. No more rhymes now I mean it!" "Anybody want a peanut?" "AAHH!
William Goldman
#88. So you think this is a trap then? the Count said. I think everything is a trap. which is why I am still alive. said the prince
William Goldman
#89. With any luck at all," he said, "we should soon be safely in the Fire Swamp.
William Goldman
#90. What can I do to improve my personal appearance?" "Start by bathing," her father said.
William Goldman
#91. That's all you need? Easy. I love you.Okay? Want it louder?I love you. Spell it out schould I l-o-v-e y-o-u. Want it backwards You love I.
William Goldman
#92. 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
#93. He looked as much like Karl as Cuddles Sakall resembled Argentina Rocca.
William Goldman
#94. I know something you do not know. I am not left-handed either.
William Goldman
#95. I mean if we even had a wheelbarrow, that would be something.
William Goldman
#96. Your love holds you for the first time in his arms and you think, How perfect, how splendid, but then, when your love isn't your love any more, you think only, I let him touch me, how horrid, how vile.
William Goldman
#97. 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
#98. He didn't forget this either. He just didn't remember it in time. . . .
William Goldman
#99. It must have been fifty seconds before Doc died.
Long time.
William Goldman
#100. 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
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