“I graduated from Oberlin College in fifty-two, did the Army for two years, then went to graduate school at Columbia University for two years. It was then the summer of 1956. I was twenty-four, and I’d always wanted to be a writer. I’d shown no signs of talent. I got the worst grades in class.”
—William Goldman
Shoptalk by Dennis Brown
Unpublished William Goldman was living in Chicago in 1956 and figured it was time to “fish or cut bait” on his dream of being a writer and wrote a short novel called The Temple of Gold. A guy he knew in the Army helped him connect with a editor at Knopf who said if he doubled the length they’d publish it and that’s how it went down. Goldman was 26 when it was published. If that hadn’t of happened he says the whole trajectory of his life would have been different.
“I would have never written anything more. Since I had shown no signs of talent, and since no one was saying, ‘Keep at it, Bill, you’ve really got the goods,’ if The Temple of Gold had not been taken, I never would have had the courage to inflict another novel on anybody. I know this is true.
—William Goldman
Goldman was said to write his second novel Your Turn to Curtsy, My Time to Bow in 7 to 10 days. The first movie made from a novel of his was Soldier in the Rain (1963). He wrote the screenplay for Harper (1966) starring Paul Newman and before his career was over he’d win two Academy Awards (All the President’s Men, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid) as well as write the screenplays for Marathon Man, Misery, and The Princess Bride.
Aaron Sorkin called him the “dean of American screenwriters.” Goldman did okay for someone who’d shown no sign of talent.
Related Post:
The Dean of American Screenwriting—William Goldman (1931-2018
Writing Quote #64 (Bernard Malamud) “I felt the years go by without accomplishment…”
Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles
Thank you. I needed to read this today.