“When I was your age, television was called books.” -William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Today would have been William Goldman’s 88th birthday.

Goldman was a prominent American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays of both “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969 and “All the President’s Men” in 1976. His other works include his comedy/fantasy novel, “The Princess Bride,” as well as his thriller novel “Marathon Man,” both of which he adapted for the film versions.

Despite never receiving any formal awards for “The Princess Bride,” the film is a sort of cult classic among youth from the 1980s.

He penned the famously memorable lines from the film such as, “Inconceivable!” and “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!”

What is humorous about his quote from “The Princess Bride” is that despite his apparent “criticism” of television, he was a Hollywood screenwriter himself.

I have never read the book, “The Princess Bride,” and likely never will, however, it is a very popular book on Goodreads with over 700,000 ratings and more than 50% of those give it 5-stars.

Maybe it will be a book I read with my children when they get a little older. They all have already seen the movie though. Obviously.

– Jason