Quotessence
Home / Authors / Stephen King
Stephen King

Stephen King Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllStephen KingWritingIfsThinkingPeopleKnowsWorldStoriesMenWantWayBookHorrorSometimesLittlesLifeBelieveDark TowerIdeasWells

Famous Stephen King Quotes

“The idea for each of the stories in this book came in a moment of belief and was written in a burst of faith, happiness, and optimism. Those positive feelings have their dark analogues, however, and the fear of failure is a long way from the worst of them. The worst - for me, at least - is the gnawing speculation that I may have already said everything that I have to say, and am now only listening to the steady quacking of my own voice because the silence when it stops is just too spooky.”

WayWritingMayLongSaidBookIdeasMomentsStoriesFeelingsBeliefVoiceDarkMy OwnSilenceWrittenWorstListeningOptimismSteadySpeculationLong WayFear Of FailureSpookyAnaloguePositive Feelings
Book:Nightmares & Dreamscapes
Create image

“There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes a good opening line. It's tricky thing, and tough to talk about because I don't think conceptually while I work on a first draft -- I just write. To get scientific about it is a little like trying to catch moonbeams in a jar. But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.”

ThinkingKnowsWantShouldWritingTryingFirstsLittlesIdeasStoriesLinesOne ThingTheoryReaderToughOpeningInvitesTrickyJarsMoonbeams
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“I always felt that organized religion was just basically a theological insurance scam where they're saying if you spend time with us, guess what, you're going to live forever, you're going to go to some other plain where you're going to be so happy, you'll just be happy all the time, which is also kind of a scary idea to me.”

IfsKindIdeasFeltForeverScaryOrganizedEnd TimesSpend TimeTheologicalLive ForeverOrganized ReligionJust Be HappyScams
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“The one thing about kids is that you never really know exactly what they're thinking or how they're seeing. After writing about kids, which is a little bit like putting the experience under a magnifying glass, you realize you have no idea how you thought as a kid. I've come to the conclusion that most of the things that we remember about our childhood are lies. We all have memories that stand out from when we were kids, but they're really just snapshots. You can't remember how you reacted because your whole head is different when you stand aside.”

ThinkingKnowsWritingLittlesIdeasDifferentWholeKidsRememberLyingBitsRealizingMemoriesSeeingOne ThingChildhoodLittle BitOur ChildrenGlassesConclusionNo IdeaStanding OutSnapshotsMagnifyingMagnifying Glass
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“I'm a situational writer. You give me a situation, like a writer gets in a car crash, breaks his leg, is kidnapped by his number-one fan, and is kept in a cabin and forced to write a book - everything else springs from there. You really don't have to work once you've had the idea. All you have to do is kind of take dictation from something inside.”

GivingWritingKindBookIdeasNumbersSituationBreakFansCarSpringGive MeLegsCrashCabinsKidnappedCar CrashDictation
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“So do we pass the ghosts that haunt us later in our lives; they sit undramatically by the roadside like poor beggars, and we see them only from the corners of our eyes, if we see them at all. The idea that they have been waiting there for us rarely crosses our minds. Yet they do wait, and when we have passed, they gather up their bundles of memory and fall in behind, treading in our footsteps and catching up, little by little.”

IfsMindLittlesHas BeensIdeasEyeFallWaitingMemoriesPoorBehindsOur LivesCrossesCornersGhostCatchingBeggarFootstepsBundlesTreadingDark TowerRoadsideCatching Up
Book:The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
Create image

“A critical assumption is sometimes made that [Grisham, Clancey, Crichton & myself] have access to some mystical vulgate that other (and often better) writers cannot find or will not deign to use. I doubt if this is true. Nor do I believe the contention of some popular novelists... that thier success is based on literary merit -- that the public understands true greatness in ways the tight-a**ed, consumed-by-jealousy literary establishment cannot. This idea is ridiculous, a product of vanity and insecurity.”

IfsWayBelieveMadeIdeasSometimesUseI BelieveDoubtGreatnessProductsCriticalAccessRidiculousVanityNovelistsMeritAssumptionInsecurityEstablishmentMysticalConsumedContentionTrue GreatnessLiterary Merit
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“My friend wants to get moving and so do I,' Eddie said. 'We've got miles to go yet.' I know that. It's on your face, son. Like a scar.' Eddie was fascinated by the idea of duty and ka as something that left a mark, something that might look like decoration to one eye and disfigurement to another. Outside, thunder cracked and lightning flashed.”

KnowsWantLooksSaidIdeasMightEyeFacesMovingLeftSonDutyMy FriendsMarkMilesYour FaceFascinatedScarLightningThunderCrackedDecorationGet MovingMiles To GoDisfigurement
Book:The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
Create image

“Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic.”

IdeasWholeEyeFallReadingTalentReadyListeningPerformancesFingersCreatorMeaninglessRehearsalEcstatic
Book:On Writing
Create image

“Let's get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”

WritingTwoIdeasStoriesShowsSeemsTogetherJobsSunClearOne ThingSkyRight NowEmptyNo IdeaIslandsSomething NewBuriedSailingGood StoryDump
Book:On writing: a memoir of the craft
Create image

“There were times . . . when it occurred to me that I was repeating my mother's life. Usually this thought struck me as funny. But if I happened to be tired, or if there were extra bills to pay and no money to pay them with, it seemed awful. I'd think 'This isn't the way our lives are supposed to be going.' Then I'd think 'Half the world has the same idea.”

IfsThinkingWorldWayIdeasMotherPayHalfOur LivesHappenedBillsTiredAwfulSupposed To BeExtrasNo MoneyBills To Pay
Book:On Writing
Create image

“What if there were no grownups? Suppose the whole idea of grownups was an illusion? What if their money was really just playground marbles, their business deals no more than baseball-card trades, their wars only games of guns in the park? What if they were all still snotty-nosed kids inside their suits and dresses? Christ, that couldn't be, could it? It was too horrible to think about.”

IfsThinkingStillsIdeasWarWholeKidsGamesChristDealsIllusionGunBaseballDressesTradeHorribleCardsSuitsParksWhat IfMarblePlaygroundsGrownupsBusiness DealsBaseball Cards
Book:Hearts in Atlantis
Create image

“The idea that the creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time. Substance abusing writers are just substance abusers — common garden variety drunks and druggies, in other words. Any claims that the drugs and alcohol are necessary to dull a finer sensibility are just the usual self-serving bullshit. I've heard alcoholic snowplow drivers make the same claim, that they drink to still the demons.”

WritingMindStillsIdeasSelfCommonCreativeHeardDrinkDrugIntellectualGardenClaimsPopsMythAlcoholVarietySubstanceOur TimeDemonDullServingDriversEndeavorUsualSensibilityBullshitAlcoholicsDrugs And AlcoholSelf ServingAbusersEntwinedDruggies
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“A child blind from birth doesn't even know he's blind until someone tells him. Even then he has only the most academic idea of what blindness is; only the formerly sighted have a real grip on the thing. Ben Hanscom had no sense of being lonely because he had never been anything but. If the condition had been new, or more localized, he might have understood, but loneliness both encompassed his life and overreached it.”

IfsKnowsChildrenIdeasRealMightConditionsLonelinessBirthUnderstoodLonelyBlindAcademicBlindnessBeing Lonely
Book:It
Create image

“... don't let your elders and supposed betters tell you any different. Sure, you've never been to Paris. No, you never ran with the bulls at Pamploma. Yes, you're a pissant who had no hair in your armpits until three years ago - but so what? If you don't start out too big for your britches, how are you gonna fill 'em when you grow up? Let it rip regardless of what anybody tells you, that's my idea; sit down an smoke that baby.”

IfsYearsIdeasDifferentWisdomBigsThreeGrowsGrowing UpHairBabyYears AgoSmokeRanParisEmsWhat IfThree YearsEldersBullsRipArmpits
Author:Stephen King
Create image

“Faith is a great thing, and really religious people would like us to believe that faith and knowing are the same thing, but I don't believe that myself. Because there are too many different ideas on the subject. What we know is this: When we die, one of two things happens. Either our souls and thoughts somehow survive the experience of dying or they don't. If they do, that opens up every possibility you could think of. If they don't, it's just blotto. The end.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsBelieveTwoIdeasDifferentSoulEndsHappensDiesReligiousKnowingSubjectsDyingPossibilityDon't BelieveThings HappenGreat ThingsTwo ThingsDifferent Ideas
Book:Pet Sematary: A Novel
Create image

“It's the pool where we all go down to drink, to swim, to catch a little fish from the edge of the shore; it's also the pool where some hardy souls go out in their flimsy wooden boats after the big ones. It is the pool of life, the cup of imagination, and she has an idea that different people see different versions of it, but with two things ever in common: it's always about a mile deep in the Fairy Forest, and it's always sad. Because imagination isn't the only thing this place is about.”

PeopleLittlesTwoIdeasDifferentSoulBigsImaginationCommonDrinkEdgesFishesMilesForestsVersionsBoatCupsTwo ThingsFairySwimShorePoolDifferent PeoplesHardy
Book:Lisey's Story: A Novel
Create image