THE PRINCESS BRIDE - WILLIAM GOLDMAN

The Princess Bride - Pg 283

   I'm not trying to make this a downer, understand. I mean, I really do think that love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops. But I also have to say, for the umpty-umpth time, that life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 249

   "Sonny, don't you tell me what's worth while--true love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops. Everybody knows that."

The Princess Bride - Pg 218

   Fezzik reached the top of the wall and started carefully climbing down the other side. "I understand everything," he said.   "You understand nothing, but it really doesn't matter, since what you mean is, you're glad to see me, just as I'm glad to see you because no more loneliness."   "That's what I mean," said Fezzik. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 212

   Inigo's voice was winding steadily down now. "I'm too weak for surprises" were the last sounds he got out before he fainted from fatigue and brandy and no food and bad sleep and lots of other things, none of them nutritious. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 189

   The baby said, "I'm dying now; there's no love in your milk, your milk has killed me" and then the child stiffened and cracked and turned in Buttercup's hands to nothing but dry dust and Buttercup screamed and screamed; even when she was awake again, with fifty-nine days to go till her marriage, she was still screaming. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 182

   Westley closed his eyes. There was pain coming and he had to be ready for it. He had to prepare his brain, he had to get his mind controlled and safe from their effores, so that they could not break him. He would not let them break him. He would hold together against anything and all. If only they gave him sufficient time to make ready, he knew he could defeat pain. It turned out they gave him sufficient time (it was months before the Machine was ready).  But they broke him anyway.

The Princess Bride - Pg 178

   He sat alone and confident and strong. His life was straight and fine. He had money enough for brandy, and if you had that, you had the world. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 178

   Back to the stoop he ran. He opened the bottle. He smelled the rough brandy. He took a sip. He coughed. He took a swallow. He coughed again. He gulped it down and coughed and gulped some more and half began a smile.   His fears were starting to leave him. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 162

   "No need--" He was going to say "No need for worry," but her panic struck too quickly. It was a normal enough reaction, and he did not try to block it but, rather, held her firmly and let the hysteria run its course. She shuddered for a time as if she fully intended to fly apart. But that was the worst. From there, it was but a few minutes to quiet sobbing. Then she was Buttercup again.

The Princess Bride - Pg 155

   The Princess of Hammersmith is displeased with you and is thinking seriously of going home." With no more words, she whirled into his arms then, saying, "Oh, Westley, I didn't mean that, I didn't, I didn't, not a single syllabub of it."   Now Westley knew that she meant to say "not a single syllable of it," because a syllabub was something you ate, with cream and wine mixed together to form the base. But he also knew an apology when he heard one. So he held her very close, and shut his loving eyes, and only whispered, "I knew it was false, believe me, every single syllabub."

The Princess Bride - Pg 143

   They proceeded along the mountain path to an open space. The man in black stopped then. There were a million stars fighting for prominence and for a moment he seemed to be intent on nothing less than studying them all, as Buttercup watched his eyes flick from constellation to constellation behind his mask.

The Princess Bride - Pg 130

   "I think it's time to head for Greece," Fezzik's father said then. "We've beaten everyone in Turkey who'll fight us and athletics began in Greece. No one appreciates talent like the Greeks."   "I just hate it when they go 'BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!' " Fezzik said. (He did. Now his private picture of hell was being left alone with everybody going "BOOOOOOOOOOO" at him forever.)   "They'll love you in Greece," Fezzik's mother said.    They fought in Greece.   "AARRRGGGGH!!! was Greek for  BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!)

The Princess Bride - Pg 89

   "He's gaining on us," the Turk said.   "That is also inconceivable," the Sicilian said. "Before I stole this boat we're in, I made many inquiries as to what was the fastest ship on all of Florin Channel and everyone agreed it was this one."    "You're right," the Turk agreed, staring back. "He isn't gaining on us. He's just getting closer that's all."

The Princess Bride - Pg 85

   "Princess," the Sicilian called, "Do you know what happens to sharks when they smell blood in the water? They go mad. There is no controlling their wildness. They rip and shred and chew and devour, and I'm in a boat, Princess, and there isn't any blood in the water now, so we're both quite safe, but there is a knife in my hand, my lady, and if you don't come back I'll cut my arms and I'll cut my legs and I'll catch the blood in a cup and I'll fling it as far as I can and sharks can smell blood in the water for miles and you won't be beautiful for long."

The Princess Bride - Pg 82

   It wasn't wrong to marry someone you didn't like, it just wasn't right either. If the whole world did it, that wouldn't be so great, what with everybody kind of grunting at everybody else as the years went by. But, of course, not everybody did it; so forget about that. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 65

   Queen Bella was shaped like a gumdrop. And colored like a raspberry. She was easily the most beloved person in the kingdom, and had been married to the King long before he began mumbling.

The Princess Bride - Pg 56

   In point of fact, she had never looked as well. She had entered her room as just an impossibly lovely girl. The woman who emerged was a trifle thinner, a great deal wiser, an ocean sadder. This one understood the nature of pain, and beneath the glory of her features, there was character, and a sure knowledge of suffering.    She was eighteen. She was the most beautiful woman in a hundred years. She didn't seem to care.   "You're all right?" her mother asked.   Buttercup sipped her cocoa. "Fine," she said.   "You're sure?" her father wondered.   "Yes," Buttercup replied. There was a very long pause. "But I must never love again."
   She never did. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 55

   He had written to her just before he sailed for America. The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love you.)

The Princess Bride - Pg 52

   He took another step. "I'm late. I must go. I hate it    but I must. The ship sails soon and London is far."   "I understand."   He reached out with his right hand.   Buttercup found it very hard to breathe.   "Good-by."   She managed to raise her right hand to his.   They shook.   "Good-by," he said again.   She made a little nod.   He took a third step, not turning.   She watched him.   He turned.   And the words ripped out of her: "Without one kiss?"   They fell into each other's arms.

The Princess Bride - Pg 51

   "Do you love me, Westley? Is that it?"   He couldn't believe it. "Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. If your love were--"   "I don't understand that first one yet," Buttercup interrupted. She was starting to get very excited now. "Let me get this straight. Are you saying my love is the size of a grain of sand and yours is this other thing? Images just confuse me so--is this universal business of yours bigger than my sand? Help me, Westley. I have the feeling we're on the verge of something just terribly important."

The Princess Bride - Pg 48

   "For me there is only you. Dearest Westley--I've never called you that before, have I?--Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley,--darling Westley, adored Westley, sweet perfect Westley, whisper that I have a chance to win your love." And with that, she dared the bravest thing she'd ever done: she looked right into his eyes.

The Princess Bride - Pg 47

   "I love you," Buttercup said. "I know this must come as something of a surprise, since all I've ever done is scorn you and degrade you and taunt you, but I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more." 

The Princess Bride - Pg 45

   "I must be overtired," Buttercup managed. "The excitement and all."   "Rest, then," her mother cautioned. "Terrible things can happen when you're overtired. I was overtired the night your father proposed." Thirty-four to twenty-two and  pulling away.

The Princess Bride - Pg 40

   The old man nodded. "Now I can die."   She glanced at him. "Don't." Her tone was surprisingly tender, and probably she sensed how important he really was to her, because when he did die, two years further on, she went right after, and most of the people who knew her well agreed it was the sudden lack of opposition that undid her.

The Princess Bride - Pg 26

   I wandered through December. No topcoat. I wasn't aware of being cold though. All I knew was I was forty years old and I didn't mean to be here when I was forty, locked with this genius shrink wife and this balloon son. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 10

   Picture this now: an all-but-illiterate old man struggling with an enemy tongue, and all-but-exhausted young boy fighting against sleep. And nothing between them but the words of another alien, painfully translated from native sounds to foreign. Who could suspect that in the morning a different child would wake? I remember, for myself, only trying to beat back fatigue. Even a week later I was not aware of what had begun that night, the doors that were slamming shut while others slid into the clear. Perhaps I should have at least known something, but maybe not; who can sense revelation in the wind?   What happened was just this: I got hooked on the story. 

The Princess Bride - Pg 10

   Who can know when his world is going to change? Who can tell before it happens, that every prior experience, all the years, were a preparation for... nothing.

The Princess Bride - Pg 5

  When I was twenty-six, my first novel, The Temple of Gold, was published by Alfred A. Knopf. (Which is now part of Random House which is now part of R.C.A. which is just part of what's wrong with publishing in America today which is not part of this story.)