A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting
by William Goldman
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American novelist (1954-)
American lawyer and former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Recommended by 4 notable people, including Tim Ferriss and Michael Bierut
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See customer reviews on Amazon →Goldman writes like a raconteur: candid, impatient, and often amused by his own stories. The book delivers first-hand, frequently funny backstage anecdotes about scripts, studio bargaining, and how films shift from page to set. Its main value is practical, streetwise warnings about the gulf between writing and production, but it offers little step-by-step instruction; chapters can drift into gossip, repetition, and period-specific references that feel dated. Best read for voice and trade-eye perspective rather than systematic guidance.
This summary and audience guidance are AI-generated from the book's description and its recommendation history, last updated June 2026. Recommendations, quotes and sources elsewhere on this page come from published material and are not generated.
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Twotime Academy Awardwinning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the Presiden...
Difficulty:easy
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Recommended by 4 sources and appears in Screenwriting, Filmmaking, and Writing.
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
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Consider The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Recommended by 14 sources.
“Campbell’s work reads like a dense academic tour through world mythology, cataloging the hero’s journey in exhausting detail. You’ll encounter countless myths, rituals, and symbols tied to a common monomyth pattern. The main value lies in its ability to unveil the deep structure beneath disparate stories, from ancient epics to modern dreams. Annoyingly, the prose is thick with Jungian and Freudian interpretation, and the comparative method can feel repetitive and overreaching. It’s a book to study, not to skim—rewarding for the patient, cloying for the skeptical.”
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
