William Goldman gave a great interview in which he talks about how little talent he had as a young writer trying to sell short stories. He was rejected countless times and had to take other kinds of work along the way, but his persistence paid off when he started writing scripts and became one of Hollywood’s most successful screenwriters of all time. He is the creative force behind such films as The Princess Bride, Maverick, Heat, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Credits:
Heat (novel / screenplay) (filming) - 2014
Dreamcatcher (screenplay) - 2003
Hearts in Atlantis (screenplay) - 2001
The General’s Daughter (screenplay) - 1999
Absolute Power (screenplay) - 1997
Fierce Creatures (uncredited) - 1997
The Ghost and the Darkness (written by) - 1996
The Chamber (screenplay) - 1996
Da Vinci (short) (story) - 1996
Maverick (written by) - 1994
Chaplin (screenplay) - 1992
Year of the Comet (written by) - 1992
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (screenplay) - 1992
Misery (screenplay) - 1990
The Princess Bride (book / screenplay) - 1987
Heat (novel / screenplay) - 1986
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (characters) - 1979
Mr. Horn (TV movie) - 1979
Magic (novel / screenplay) - 1978
A Bridge Too Far (screenplay) - 1977
Marathon Man (novel / screenplay) - 1976
All the President’s Men (screenplay) - 1976
The Great Waldo Pepper (screenplay) - 1975
The Stepford Wives (screenplay) - 1975
The Hot Rock (screenplay) - 1972
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (written by) - 1969
No Way to Treat a Lady (novel) - 1968
Harper (screenplay) - 1966
Masquerade (screenplay) - 1965
Soldier in the Rain (novel) - 1963
Quotes:
Nobody knows anything.
Understand this: all the sleaze you’ve heard about Hollywood? All the illiterate scumbags who scuttle down the corridors of power? They are there, all right, and worse than you can imagine.