"Nobody knows anything" and other true stuff said by William Goldman


I'm reading Adventures in the Screen Trade by novelist/screenwriter William Goldman, who wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, among other things.

Among the very true things he says:
“Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the impossibility of ever getting it right. No matter how diamond-bright your ideas are dancing in your brain, on paper they are earthbound.”

Comments

Suzan Harden said…
I'm not saying there's no truth to Mr. Goldman's words, but when I take a really good look at the demon perched on my back and peering over my shoulder, it's usually my protagonist saying, "Hey, dumba**, that's not how it happened!"