Goldman is not only a brilliant writer, he's incredibly insightful on those clips. One of the additional YouTube clips is an interview with Charlie Rose after "The Insider" came out. Goldman predicts that Russell Crowe is going to be the next great actor. I guess there's one exception to 'nobody knows anything'.

I always find it fascinating to see how the minds of top screenwriters work. Each is different in how they approach the craft which shows the wonderful breadth of creative inspiration.

Re screenwriter interview videos: Since nobody else seems to have done it, I'm going to try to find them all and centralize access here. An amazing amount of 'wisdom' readily available on the Web.

There are a lot of stories in Hwood about William Goldman. I'll be posting the ones I know over the next several months.

Hi, Scott --

Thanks for your Goldman features, and for the promise of sleuthing down interviews with screenwriters!

After reading Goldman's cool take on action sequences, I'd like to read "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Do you know if the screenplay for is available on the internet? I've checked the usual suspects with no luck.

If all else fails, I could (sigh) break down and BUY it at Script Shack or something -- but being an enterprising sw, I'm searching the free zone first.

Thanks for any pointers.

You're right, Judy, as I've not been able to find the Butch Cassidy script online either. However, it is reprinted in its entirety in Goldman's wonderful book "Adventures in the Screen Trade" and Goldman provides his own personal analysis of the script.

I bought the book in 1983, when it was first published. I don't know what possessed me to make that purchase as I'd never thought about screenwriting before. But I remember being fascinated by all of it, especially Goldman's take on writing.

Also, the book is full of choice quotes. One of my favorites is, "The most exciting day of your life is the first day you spend on a film set. The most boring day of your life is the second day you spend on a film set."

So if you want to read the Butch Cassidy script, might as well buy Goldman's book. And he's written other non-fiction books about his experience in Hollywood as well, although none as inspiring as his first; it feels like he's become more cynical over the years.