William Goldman Quotes

My first show was called 'I Know I've Been Changed' in '92. I tried to do this show for years and years. It kept failing over and over and over again. Every time I went out to do the show, nobody showed up. I was like, 'What is this about?'

If I went by all the rejection I've had in my career, I should have given up a long time ago.

You don't have to do everything by the time you're 30. Or 40. All you need is a work ethic. It's what allows you to push through moments of disappointment and self-doubt and fear.

It sucks to be the runner-up because I've been the runner-up for a long time in my career. I would get so close and then lose a huge movie and sometimes it's one kid who beats you out for three different movies. It's so frustrating at the time, but what's so great is the lesson you take from that, which is, 'I've got to get better.'

I never doubted that I would work, and every time I went to an audition, I went into the room with the knowledge that I was going to get the part. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I didn't.

As actors, we deal with rejection so much more than any other business. So I don't care how much of a genius you are, if you don't have the propensity to be able to get back up every time you get knocked down, then you're not going to survive.

My story is one of ups and downs. It's made up of tastes of success and a lot more rejection.

I want a career and the thing is you really have to love acting. I didn't just fall into it and it wasn't just something I was good at. I've had to really work at this. I've had to fall on my face time and time again. You get 'no' 99 per cent of the time and a 'yes' just once.

I didn't know the odds were so stacked against me. I went for TV shows and never got them. But I kept glued to the pursuit. I was the biggest fool in town, but ultimately I was the biggest fool in town with a job.

The starkest rejection letter might be followed by a million-dollar advance. Don't let rejection start to look the same as failure.

People are afraid of failure - they don't like to work so hard and have people keep saying, 'No.' I think that's what people fear most.

I have been rejected 120 times, probably because I didn't write the right book.

I didn't get my first pilot that I screen-tested for, and I really thought it was the end of the world. But it's fine, you know, you move on to something else.

You're rejected 10 to 20 times for every part you are going to get.

You go up for hundreds, thousands of roles, and you get told no, no, no, so many times.

It feels bad when a film doesn't work; everyone puts in a lot of effort to make a movie. The positive side to failure - they make me work harder.

There is going to be a hundred thousand doors slammed in your face before one opens, so feel ok about taking rejection.

I've been through my fair share of highs and lows. Yes, I've been written off, and it amazes me, and it amuses me, also, when I'm written off by the press cause then I tell them that's just the lull before the storm. And every time I've been down, I've been down, never out. So it just makes me work a lot harder.

The only time you mustn't fail is the last time you try.

As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward.

Spend enough time around success and failure, and you learn a reverence for possibility.

I remember when I was on 'Saturday Night Live' my first year, and I wasn't getting much. I was down; I was ready to quit.

The greatest glory never comes from falling, but from rising each time you fall.

You're not going to get every part, so you can't base your sense of self-worth around whether or not you actually land the job.

If you're the type of person who has to fulfill your dreams, you've gotta be resourceful to make sure you can do it. I came out to California when I was 21, thinking my New York credentials would take me all the way. I came back home a year later all dejected and a failure.