“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win”
Stephen King
“Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.”
The Shining
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Stephen King
“Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on.”
Bag of Bones
“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”
Stephen King
“The harder you had to work to open a package, the less you ended up caring about what was inside.”
—Lisey’s Story
Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding.
Stephen King
Nobody likes a clown at midnight
– Stephen King
Your hair is winter fire January embers My heart burns there, too.
It, Stephen King
“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not. Time takes it all, bears it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again.”
The Green Mile
“I think that we’re all mentally ill. Those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better after all”
Stephen King
“We never cease wanting what we want, whether it’s good for us or not.”
Full Dark, No Stars
“Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once.”
Stephen King
“No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.”
Wolves Of The Calla
“People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.”
The Stand
“What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common….”
The Drawing Of The Three
Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
Stephen King
“The road to hell is paved with adverbs”
Stephen King
“Talent is a wonderful thing, but it won’t carry a quitter.”
Duma Key
“That’s your job in this hard world, to keep your love alive and see that you get on, no matter what.”—
The Shining
“There is no gain without risk, perhaps no risk without love.”
Pet Sematary
We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.
– Stephen King
“If you don’t control your temper, your temper will control you.”
Under The Dome
The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn’t real. I know that, and I also know that if I’m careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.
Night Shift, Stephen King
If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered.”—‘Salem’s Lot
“We all do what we can, and it has to be good enough, and if it isn’t good enough, it has to do.”
The Dead Zone
“But writing is a wonderful and terrible thing. It opens deep wells of memory that were previously capped.”
—Revival
“There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.
The Shawshank Redemption
“If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die”
Christine
“We lie best when we lie to ourselves.”
It
A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.
Stephen King
“Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto.”
Dolores Claiborne
“Some things it don’t pay to be curious about.”—
Pet Sematary
“You cant be too careful on a skateboard.”
The Tommyknockers
“But in high school the business of irrevocable choices began. Doors slipped shut with a faint locking click that was only heared clearly in the dreams of later years.”—
Cujo
“God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the tenacity to change what I may, and the good luck not to fuck up too often.”—
‘Salem’s Lot
“Anger is the most useless emotion, destructive to the mind and hurtful to the heart.”
Song Of Susannah
“Memory is the basis of every journey.”
Dreamcatcher
“Hearts can break. Yes. Hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don’t.”—Hearts in Atlantis
“People don’t get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don’t stop pulling the wings of flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it.”
Carrie
“No great thing is created suddenly.”—
Doctor Sleep
“And almost idly, in a kind of sidethought, Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.”—It
“He who speaks without an attentive ear is mute.”
The Dark Tower
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.
Stephen King
“For readers, one of life’s most electrifying discoveries is that they are readers—not just capable of doing it, but in love with it. Hopelessly. Head over heels.”—
Finders Keepers
“When all else fails, give up and go to the library.”
11/22/63
“Art should be a place of hope.”—
Duma Key
“The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted.”
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
“Sooner or later even the fastest runners have to stand and fight.”
—Just After Sunset
“The three true ages of man are youth, middle age, and how the fuck did I get old so soon?”
—Revival
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When you find something at which you have talent, you do that thing (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes pop out of your head.”—
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“It’s best to be ruthless with the past.”
Rose Madder
“We fool ourselves so much we could do it for a living.”—Duma Key
“A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.—Under the Dome
“Sometimes you can grab a chain and use it to pull yourself out of a dark place. Mostly, though, I think you get wrapped up in them.”
From A Buick 8
Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King
“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.”—On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly.
Stephen King
“The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn’t real. I know that, and I also know that if I’m careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.”—Night Shift
“A person who doesn’t learn from the past is an idiot, in my estimation.”—11/22/63
“Fools are the only folk on the earth who can absolutely count on getting what they deserve.”
Wizard and Glass
“Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.”
—The Long Walk
“It’s a cash and carry world. Sometimes you pay a little. Mostly it’s a lot. Sometimes, it’s everything you have.”
Storm Of The Century
“Sometimes loving eyes don’t see what they don’t want to see.”
The Colorado Kid
“You want to be good for the ones you love, because you know that your time with them will end up being too short, no matter how long it is.”
Lisey’s Story
“There are books full of great writing that don’t have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story…don’t be like the book-snobs who won’t do that. Read sometimes for the words—the language. Don’t be like the play-it-safers who won’t do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book.”—Hearts in Atlantis
Time takes it all whether you want it to or not, time takes it all. Time bares it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again.
– Stephen King
“When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction.”—Joyland
“Some werewolves are hairy on the inside.”—Danse Macabre
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”—On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“You know what talent is? The curse of expectation.”
The Mist
“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the tools to write.”
—On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“We spread the time as we can, but in the end the world takes it all back.”—Wolves of the Calla
“Life is fair. We all get the same nine-month shake in the box, and then the dice roll. Some people get a run of sevens. Some people, unfortunately, get snake-eyes. It’s just how the world is.”—Full Dark, No Stars
“A short story is a different thing altogether – a short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger.”—Skeleton Crew
“The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited.”—Bag of Bones
“One of the great things about tales is how fast time may pass when not much of note is happening. Real life is never that way, and it is probably a good thing.”—The Eyes of the Dragon
Books are a uniquely portable magic.
Stephen King
Hearts can break. Yes, hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don’t.
Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King
The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.
– Stephen King