Biography

He used to leave his Manhattan apartment in the morning and write in a nearby office. At around 5:00 p.m., he was more than happy to stop writing, leave the office, and enjoy the rest of the day. "The sooner I'm done, the sooner I can go to the movies," he admitted.

Turned down the opportunity to write The Godfather (1972) and Superman (1978).

Rumored to be the true author of the Academy Award-winning screenplay of Good Will Hunting (1997). Goldman denied authorship at a Writers Guild of America meeting. In other comments, Goldman has said that he merely met with co-authors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for one day to offer encouragement and a little advice, specifically to eliminate a subplot dealing with the FBI, as the screenplay already was in fine form.

Goldman believed that Rocky (1976) beat All the President's Men (1976) for the 1976 Best Picture Academy Award due its spectacular box office run and the fact that Hollywood loved the real-life, Lana Turner-esque story of Sylvester Stallone's emergence into super-stardom from obscurity. Goldman believes that if the Hollywood community knew about Stallone's hubris, it would not have voted his film the Oscar.

He wrote the screenplays for five films starring Robert Redford: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Hot Rock (1972), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), All the President's Men (1976) and A Bridge Too Far (1977).

[about Hollywood] Nobody knows anything.

[on the significance of the movie All the President's Men (1976)] "No less acute [an] observer of American politics than Governor Ronald Reagan of California said that he thought the movie eventually cost Gerald Ford the presidency against Jimmy Carter, because the film's release in April 1976 and its long run flushed to the surface again all the realities of Watergate that the Republicans had tried so hard to bury. We are talking then about a movie that may be one of the few that just might have changed the entire course of American history."

[on Sidney Lumet] Lumet never keeps anybody waiting -- no director has earned a larger reputation for efficiency and organization.

[on Alan J. Pakula] Alan is a gentleman. We had mutual acquaintances in the business and they said nothing but good things about him as a human being. Neither can I. He is well-educated and serious about his work.

[on Richard Attenborough] By far the finest, most decent human being I've ever met in the picture business.