Quotes from Stephen King

There is a skull in every man, and I tell you there is a skull in the lives of all men. They saw it that day, those men. They saw what sometimes grins behind the smile.

If you haven't considered it already, consider it now: there is every possibility that some of us, or all of us, may live and triumph, only to stand trial for murder.

The most important things to remember about backstory are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn't very interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don't get carried away with the rest. Life stories are best received in bars, and only then an hour or so before closing time, and if you are buying.

It was funny stuff, sanity. When it was taken away, you didn't know it. You didn't feel its departure. You only really knew it when it was restored, like some rare wild bird which lived and sang within you not by decree but by choice.

I believe instinct's the iron skeleton under all our ideas of free will. Unless you're willing to take the pipe or eat the gun or take a long walk off a short dock, you can't say no to some things. You can't refuse to pick up your option because there is no option.

I believe you hear a click, not in your head but in your soul, when you find the place where you belong. You can ignore it, but really, why would you?

Call me Richard. That's my real name. Call me that.

Some people have remarkably sturdy illusions.

accidental shooting death, they argue, are just part of the price we pay for freedom ... and besides, that sort of thing would never happen to me ; I'm too cool-headed.

One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, working for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed, and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.

got to be regular if you want to be happy

Remember, my talented friend, there are Michelangelos begging everywhere in the streets of Rome...

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown

Finest kind of dope. Book-Valium. No more heebie-jeebies. No more whim-whams

if you reach the age of twenty-five or thirty without knowing how to spell (TOTALLY, not TODILLY), or capitalize in the proper places (White House, not white-house), or write a sentence containing both a noun AND a verb, you're probably never going to know.

Thud, thud, thud, riderless black horse with red eyes coming down the halls of his mind, ironshod hooves digging up soft gray clods of brain tissue, leaving hoofprints to fill up with mystic crescents of blood.

Tony, Tony,come around, something's lost that can't be found.

See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth. His thought is slow but always kind; He holds us all within his mind. On his back all vows are made; He sees the truth but mayn't aid. He loves the land and loves the sea, And even loves a child like me.

I have never felt like I was creating anything. For me, writing is like walking through a desert and all at once, poking up through the hardpan, I see the top of a chimney. I know there's a house under there, and I'm pretty sure that I can dig it up if I want. That's how I feel. It's like the stories are already there. What they pay me for is the leap of faith that says: If I sit down and do this, everything will come out OK.

End of watch is what they call it, but Hodges himself has found it impossible to give up watching.

Friends come and go like waiters in a restaurant, did you ever notice that? [...] Some people drown, that's all. It's not fair, but it happens

Maybe that was strange. Maybe it was sad. Maybe it was what literary types called irony.

Pissing and thinking have a lot in common, he thought. You can put them both off.. But not forever.

Tell him to shut up! Tell him there's no crying in baseball!