Stephen King Quotes - Page 23

• But writers INVITE ghosts, maybe; along with actors and artists, they are the only totally accepted mediums of our society. They make worlds that never were, populate them with people who never existed, and then invite us to join them in their fantasies. And we do it, don't we? Yes. We PAY to do it.

  Stephen King

  Artist, People, Actors

  Stephen King (2016). “The Dark Half”, p.482, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• Must you write complete sentences each time, every time? Perish the thought. If your work consists only of fragments and floating clauses, the Grammar Police aren't going to come and take you away. Even William Strunk, that Mussolini of rhetoric, recognized the delicious pliability of language. "It is an old observation," he writes, "that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric." Yet he goes on to add this thought, which I urge you to consider: "Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules."

  Stephen King

  Writing, Police, Add

  Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.113, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• Even when love isn't enough...somehow it is.

  Stephen King

  Love, Love Is, Enough

  6 Copy quote

• If I can get it down on paper without puking all over the word processor, then as far as I'm concerned, it's fit to see the light of day.

  Stephen King

  Writing, Light, Paper

  Stephen King, Tim Underwood, Chuck Miller (1988). “Bare bones: conversations on terror with Stephen King”, McGraw-Hill Companies

  6 Copy quote

• I write in the mornings, in the bright daylight. But I get most of my good ideas after the sun has gone down and the dark is on the land.

  Stephen King

  Morning, Writing, Dark

  Interview with Phil Konstantin, americanindian.net. July 1987.

  7 Copy quote

• I like to think that good people win. But even good people have other sides. Most people will slow down to get a good look at an accident, even though they won't admit it.

  Stephen King

  Winning, Thinking, People

  Interview with Phil Konstantin, americanindian.net. July 1987.

  7 Copy quote

• My feeling of the whole genre, of the terror tale, is this: The best thing that you can do for the readers in this field is to terrify them. It is something that is intellectual, it happens in your mind.

  Stephen King

  Feelings, Intellectual, Mind

  Interview with Phil Konstantin, americanindian.net. July 1987.

  6 Copy quote

• I write about rats because they scare the hell out of me. I think we tend to write out our phobias.

  Stephen King

  Writing, Thinking, Phobia

  Interview with Phil Konstantin, americanindian.net. July 1987.

  10 Copy quote

• The death of the music business was insane, but audio recordings have been around now for maybe 120 years. Books have been around for, what, nine centuries? So they're more entrenched than music.

  Stephen King

  Book, Years, Insane

  Interview with Andy Greene, www.rollingstone.com. October 31, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• They were close to the end of the beginning . . .

  Stephen King

  Dark Tower, Ends, Gunslinger

  Stephen King (2016). “The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger”, p.180, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

• It was the kiss by which all the others of his life would be judged and found wanting.

  Stephen King

  Kissing, Would Be, Found

  Stephen King (2009). “Stephen King Goes to the Movies”, p.192, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters.

  Stephen King

  Tree, Backyards, October

  Stephen King (2014). “Big Driver”, p.89, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• And I believe happiness is the exact opposite of sadness, bitterness, and hatred: happiness should remain unexamined as long as possible.

  Stephen King

  Believe, Sadness, Opposites

  Stephen King (2016). “The Tommyknockers”, p.292, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

• The road and the tale have both been long, would you not say so? The trip has been long and the cost has been high... but no great thing was ever attained easily. A long tale, like a tall Tower, must be built a stone at a time.

  Stephen King

  Long, Towers, Cost

  FaceBook post by Stephen King from Dec 04, 2013

  4 Copy quote

• I’m not particularly keen on writing which exhaustively describes the physical characteristics of the people in the story and what they’re wearing… I can always get a J. Crew catalogue… …So spare me, if you please, the hero’s ‘sharply intelligent blue eyes’ and ‘outthrust determined chin’.

  Stephen King

  Hero, Writing, Eye

  4 Copy quote

• I believe the first draft of a book — even a long one — should take no more than three months…Any longer and — for me, at least — the story begins to take on an odd foreign feel, like a dispatch from the Romanian Department of Public Affairs, or something broadcast on high-band shortwave duiring a period of severe sunspot activity.

  Stephen King

  Believe, Book, Long

  Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.149, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.

  Stephen King

  Character, Thinking, People

  Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.189, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to. If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind – they begin to seem like characters instead of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace. Worst of all, the excitement of spinning something new begins to fade. The work starts to feel like work, and for most writers that is the smooch of death.

  Stephen King

  Real, Writing, Character

  "22 lessons from Stephen King on how to be a great writer". www.businessinsider.com. August 11, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

• Let evil wait for the day on which it must fall.

  Stephen King

  Fall, Evil, Waiting

  Robin Furth, Stephen King (2006). “Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance”, p.490, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• Pray for rain all you like, but dig a well as you do it.

  Stephen King

  Rain, Praying, Wells

  Stephen King (2012). “The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel”, p.174, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• When you own a piano, it's harder to think about moving.

  Stephen King

  Moving, Thinking, Piano

  Stephen King (2016). “Misery”, p.171, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• The old sleep poorly. Perhaps they stand watch.

  Stephen King

  Sleep, Watches

  Stephen King (2014). “Pet Sematary”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• The simple truth of things is that bad dreams are far better than bad wakings.

  Stephen King

  Dream, Simple, Waking

  Stephen King (2016). “Rose Madder”, p.423, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Mornings belong to whatever is new; the current composition. Afternoons are for naps and letters.

  Stephen King

  Morning, Naps, Afternoon

  Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft”, p.96, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

• Doubters will doubt to the end.

  Stephen King

  Doubt, Doubters, Ends

  Stephen King (2007). “The Mist”, p.119, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Tabitha King

Stephen Hawking

Edgar Allan Poe

J. K. Rowling

Dean Koontz

H. P. Lovecraft

Stephenie Meyer

Ray Bradbury