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William Goldman Quotes

William Goldman is 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 Kid and again for All the President's Men , about journalists who broke the Watergate scandal of President Richard Nixon. Both films starred Robert Redford.

His other notable works include his thriller novel Marathon Man and comedy-fantasy novel The Princess Bride, both of which Goldman adapted for film.

Author Sean Egan has described Goldman as "one of the late twentieth century’s most popular storytellers."

✵ 12. August 1931 – 16. November 2018  •  Other names ویلیام قلدمن
William Goldman photo

Works

The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride
William Goldman
Adventures in the Screen Trade
Marathon Man
Marathon Man
William Goldman
The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride
William Goldman
Adventures in the Screen Trade
Marathon Man
Marathon Man
William Goldman
William Goldman: 89 quotes7 likes

Famous William Goldman Quotes

“My heart was now a secret garden and the walls were very high.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Variant: Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.
Source: The Princess Bride

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

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

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

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“This was after stew. But then, so is everything. When the first man crawled out of the slime and went to make his home on land, what he had for dinner that night was stew.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Miracle Max: Have fun stormin' da castle.
Valerie: Think it'll work?
Miracle Max: It would take a miracle.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“I mean, I really do think that love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops. But I also have to say, for the umpty-umpth time, that life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

William Goldman Quotes about love

“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.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

William Goldman Quotes about death

“Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“But I also have to say, for the umpty-umpth time, that life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

William Goldman: Trending quotes

“When I was your age, television was called books.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Inconceivable!"
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

William Goldman Quotes

“Who says life is fair, where is that written?”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“We’ll never survive!”
“Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Love is many things none of them logical.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Cynics are simply thwarted romantics.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Who are you?"
"No one of consequence."
"I must know."
"Get used to disappointment.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“As you wish…”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“No more rhymes now I mean it!”

“Anybody want a peanut?”

“AAHH!”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Have fun storming the castle!”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“You think this is a trap then?" the Count asked.
"I always think everything is a trap until proven otherwise," the Prince answered. "Which is why I'm still alive.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“You are trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen, and I think it quite ungentlemanly.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“The enemy is always in the mind.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Look. (Grown-ups skip this paragraph) I'm not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending. I already said in the very first line how it was my favorite in all the world. But there's a lot of bad stuff coming.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Inigo Montoya: He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Mawwage. Mawwage is what bwings us together today.”

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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“Westley and I are joined by the bond of love and you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“I write out of revenge.”

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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“My Westley will come for me.”

William Goldman

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

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

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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 book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“He was the mighty Fezzik, lover of rhymes, and you did not give up, no matter what.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“What kind of human person has a favorite eraser?”

William Goldman Marathon Man

Source: Marathon Man

“Dummy, dummy, go out now and fill your tummy.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

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

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“I'm not witch. I'm your wife.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

“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

“I must learn.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

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