Daily Inspiration Quote by William Goldman

"You can never trust what you read" is the kind of line that sounds like cranky media skepticism until you remember William Goldman made a career out of turning story into a con. As a novelist and screenwriter, he understood that the written word doesn’t just report reality; it manufactures it, then dares you to call its bluff. The intent isn’t to preach illiteracy. It’s to expose the quiet violence of narration: someone is always selecting, arranging, omitting, smoothing the seams.

Goldman’s subtext is professional and personal. He’s talking about publishers selling certainty, critics selling authority, and writers selling emotion with the confidence of a magician palming a coin. He also means the reader’s complicity. We want to trust what we read because trust is the entry fee for immersion. The line punctures that bargain, reminding you that belief is something you do, not something text guarantees.

Context matters: Goldman’s most famous novel, The Princess Bride, is literally built on a fake editorial apparatus, a “good parts” version of a nonexistent classic. It’s a joke with teeth. By pretending to be an abridger, he dramatizes how every text is an abridgment of a fuller world, and how “authenticity” is often just a well-designed frame.

The wit is in the absolutism: never trust. It’s an overstatement meant to jolt you into a better habit, not a nihilistic one. Read, then interrogate. Enjoy the spell, but keep an eye on the trapdoor.