Stephen King Quotes

[Letti]

Here are some great ones:

"Fiction is the truth inside the lie."


"Get busy living, or get busy dying."


"God is cruel. Sometimes he makes you live." - so true :rolleyes:

Do you have any favourite ones?

[Storyslinger]

"The road to hell is paved with adverbs."

[Fall of Gilead]

"Hi, I'm Stephen King and I wrote the damn thing!"

[Girlystevedave]

"There were more doors than one person could ever open in a lifetime, I thought.."

That's one of my favorite quotes, period.

[Darkthoughts]

A friend of mine sent me this message:


Read a great Stephen King quote in the Warren Zevon biography this morning. Did you know Zevon played with King's band?

Anyway, King phoned Zevon about an upcoming gig but got cut off by the answer phone, called back and left another message saying 'I wrote 'The Stand' and 'It'- you KNOW I'll have my goddamn say'
:lol:

[Letti]

"I watched Titanic when I got back home from the hospital, and cried. I knew that my IQ had been damaged."

[ManOfWesternesse]

"I watched Titanic when I got back home from the hospital, and cried. I knew that my IQ had been damaged."

:lol: - at least his sense of humour was intact!

[Letti]

"I watched Titanic when I got back home from the hospital, and cried. I knew that my IQ had been damaged."

:lol: - at least his sense of humour was intact!

*laughs*

[Letti]

“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs”

[Erin]

What's the one about having the "heart of a small boy" and keeping it in a jar on his desk? :lol: I love that one.

I wonder what the exact quote for that is and where he said it. I've seen so many versions, I don't know which one is correct.

[jhanic]

That was originally said by Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, among other classics.

John

[Erin]

Ahhhh. See...you can't trust everything you read on the internet. :lol:

[Matt]

"Put it on your tough shit list and give it to the Chaplin" :lol:

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

French is the language that turns dirt into romance.

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

God is cruel. Sometimes he makes you live.

I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries.

No, it's not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

The devil's voice is sweet to hear.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet.

We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.

[Erin]

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet.


I've always loved this quote. I used it as my senior quote underneath my picture in the yearbook.

[The Lady of Shadows]

let's encyclopedia brown this bitch

[biomieg]

Can anyone tell me where I can find the "Fiction is the truth inside the lie" quote? I just can't remember in which book he wrote it....:pullhair:

[Brice]

This?
The story and the people in it may be make believe but I need to ask myself over and over if I’ve told the truth about the way real people would behave in a similar situation…. We understand that fiction is a lie to begin with. To ignore the truth inside the lie is to sin against the craft, in general, and one’s own work in particular.

or on the dedication page of It?

[divemaster]

I like the one where he says (paraphrased):

"Hey, with my writing I'm going to try to terrify you. If that doesn't work, I'll try to horrify you. If I find I can't horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud."

That right there is classic SK.

[Brice]

Is that from Danse Macabre...or one of the introductions?

[divemaster]

I first read it as a blurb on the back of one of those biog-type books. Feast of Fear or Bare Bones or something, but I'm pretty sure it was quoting from Danse Macabre.

[biomieg]

This?
The story and the people in it may be make believe but I need to ask myself over and over if I’ve told the truth about the way real people would behave in a similar situation…. We understand that fiction is a lie to begin with. To ignore the truth inside the lie is to sin against the craft, in general, and one’s own work in particular.

or on the dedication page of It?

Hey thanks Brice, it might be from a different context than a book, I didn't even think about that :) I guess this must be it (I'll check the dedication page of 'IT' later). Much obliged!

[Brice]

:thumbsup:

I think he's actually made similar statements in different places several times.

[Letti]

I like the one where he says (paraphrased):

"Hey, with my writing I'm going to try to terrify you. If that doesn't work, I'll try to horrify you. If I find I can't horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud."

That right there is classic SK.

Wow, good one. :)

[Melike]

''Endings are heartless.''

[zelig]

I wanted to start a thread on King quotes, but thought I'd check around first to see if one exists. I found this one, but there hasn't been a post here for over 6 years. Anyway, not sure if anyone visits here much, but I wanted to post this piece. I've been reading/re-reading all his books and have a ton of quotes that I think are truly brilliant. Here's one which is from Blaze. It's absolutely beautiful writing.

"Sometimes when he was in the country he would sleep in a barn and wake in the night and go out and look at the stars and there were so many, and he knew they were there before him, and they would be there after him. That was sort of awful and sort of wonderful. Sometimes when he was hitchhiking and it was going on for November, the wind would blow around him and flap his pants and he would grieve for something that was lost, like that letter which had come with no address. Sometimes he would look at the sky in the spring and see a bird, and it might make him happy, but just as often it felt like something inside him was getting small and ready to break."

— Blaze, Stephen King

[Girlystevedave]

Man, that makes me want to reread Blaze. What an amazing passage.
Thanks for sharing. And for reviving this thread. :thumbsup:

[zelig]

Yeah, I love that passage. One of my favorites. And I loved everything about Blaze. Great book.

[Jon]

I wanted to start a thread on King quotes, but thought I'd check around first to see if one exists. I found this one, but there hasn't been a post here for over 6 years. Anyway, not sure if anyone visits here much, but I wanted to post this piece. I've been reading/re-reading all his books and have a ton of quotes that I think are truly brilliant. Here's one which is from Blaze. It's absolutely beautiful writing.

"Sometimes when he was in the country he would sleep in a barn and wake in the night and go out and look at the stars and there were so many, and he knew they were there before him, and they would be there after him. That was sort of awful and sort of wonderful. Sometimes when he was hitchhiking and it was going on for November, the wind would blow around him and flap his pants and he would grieve for something that was lost, like that letter which had come with no address. Sometimes he would look at the sky in the spring and see a bird, and it might make him happy, but just as often it felt like something inside him was getting small and ready to break."

— Blaze, Stephen King


Interesting opinion. The repeated use of the word "and" in the first sentence kind of makes it choppy and awkward to me; maybe even a bit "run on." But the rest...I agree, is quite beautiful.

[zelig]

I hear you, although I feel that's part of what makes the language so good. To me, the way "and" is used to join his thoughts is just right. It lends a sort of poetic melody to the sentence. It also creates an urgency to it. You almost feel breathless reading it because when you expect the sentence to end, it doesn't and goes on. It's like a short prose poem to me. I read a lot of poetry so that could be why I have an ear for this sort of language and why I like it so much.

[Jon]

I ALWAYS get chills when I read this:


“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.”

[zelig]

Wow, that is great. Which book is it from? I don't remember reading this before.

[Jon]

I believe it is from The Body.

But I am uncertain. My memory fools me often these days.

[zelig]

I found it. It's from The Body in Different Seasons.

[Jon]

Yes...I found it. the page goes on most poignantly:




"Have you ever felt this?








I've had instances where I had something that was so important to say... SO important, at least to me. But when the thoughts were finally pressed into words and sentences, the listeners blew them away like chaff. And it wasn't really because they didn't care. But they didn't understand. They didn't understand why the words were important. They didn't understand what it cost me to say them, how much I felt I was risking. They didn't understand the meaning behind the words, the feeling behind the words, the importance behind the words.


You're left at a loss, aren't you? You want to say, "No, LOOK. Listen to what I am saying to you. Can you not see the tears I have just shed trying to communicate my very heart? Can you not understand why this has been so hard to say, and yet so very imperative that I share it?"


And they don't. They just... don't. It's heartbreaking and disappointing, and leaves you feeling very deflated. Not even mad at them. Maybe it's not their fault that they don't understand. But you feel deflated, and a little lost. They were supposed to understand.


So, you close up again and you lock your secrets away again and you remind yourself what happens when you let your heart out and you vow that there won't be another time. There won't be an "again."


But, there will. Our secret hearts aren't meant to be locked up, hidden away from all people.


There will be an "again." And maybe "again" will turn out differently."

[Jon]

I was thinking maybe Apt Pupil...I reckon I was in the right ballpark.

[zelig]

Yeah, it's a great quote for sure. I've read it a few times now. Can't believe I missed it.

[zelig]

Here's one from Christine. Another one of my favorites. Such great language in the last line.

She stiffened for a moment and then let me draw her against my shoulder. She was trembling. We just sat that way, both of us afraid of even the slightest movement, I think. Afraid we might explode. Or something. Across the room, the clock ticked importantly on the mantelpiece. Bright winterlight fell through the bow windows that give a three-way view of the street. The storm had blown itself out by noon on Christmas Day, and now the hard and cloudless blue sky seemed to deny that there even was such a thing as snow—but the dunelike drifts rolling across lawns all up and down the street like the backs of great buried beasts confirmed it.

— Stephen King, Christine

[Jon]

Here's one from Christine. Another one of my favorites. Such great language in the last line.

Across the room, the clock ticked importantly on the mantelpiece.

— Stephen King, Christine

I LOVE this line!!

[Girlystevedave]

Guys, I came across this while reading Ur last night and I thought it was a beautiful line.
"The Tower trembles, the worlds shudder in their courses. The rose feels a chill, as of winter."

[Jon]

"worlds shudder"

Nice!

[Tommy]

"You can frost a dog turd, but it's still a dog turd."

[zelig]

"They went toward town, a young walking man in a flat-crowned hat, a young riding woman with a poncho spread over her lap and legs. The starlight rained down on them as it has on young men and women since time’s first hour, and once she looked up and saw a meteor flash overhead—a brief and brilliant orange streak across the vault of heaven."

— The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass

[Jon]

"You can frost a dog turd, but it's still a dog turd."


Thank you, Tommy...that's beautiful! *wipes tear*

[Cordial Jim]

"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."

[Jon]

Nice one, Jim.

Did you look this up on Google? Because "Any quote you have to hunt for in Google is the wrong quote. There are no exceptions to this rule."


Sorry, Jim. The smartass in me couldn't resist!

[zelig]

Roland also shook his head … and then Jake saw that Eddie Dean was raising his. There was a peculiar smile on Eddie's face, a peculiar shine in Eddie's eyes, and Jake found that hope hadn't deserted him, after all. It suddenly flowered anew in his mind, red and hot and vivid. Like … well, like a rose. A rose in the full fever of its summer.

— The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass

[T-Dogz_AK47]

"You can frost a dog turd, but it's still a dog turd."


Thank you, Tommy...that's beautiful! *wipes tear*


HAHAHAHAHA!!!! :lol:

[zelig]

I use an app for taking notes and for writing, and now that I've been using it for more than a year, what it does is send you a notification when you have an entry that occurred on the same day a year ago. I received a notification today of a quote from Christine that I had typed in. Just re-read it. What beautiful writing, and insight into the human condition.


By the time I had the mounted tire back in my trunk and had paid the guy two bucks for the job, the early evening light had become the fading purple of late evening. The shadow of each bush was long and velvety, and as I cruised slowly back up the street I saw the day's last light streaming almost horizontally through the trash-littered space between the Arby's and the bowling alley. That light, so much flooding gold, was nearly terrible in its strange, unexpected beauty.

I was surprised by a choking panic that climbed up in my throat like dry fire. It was the first time a feeling like that came over me-that long, strange year—-but not the last. Yet it's hard for me to explain, or even define. It had something to do with realizing that it was August 11, 1978, that I was going to be a senior in high school next month, and that when school started again it meant the end of a long, quiet phase of my life. I was getting ready to be a grown-up, and I saw that somehow - saw it for sure, for the first time in that lovely but somehow ancient spill of golden light flooding down the alleyway between a bowling alley and a roast beef joint. And I think I understood then that what really scares people about growing up is that you stop trying on the life-mask and start trying on another one. If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die.

The feeling passed, but in its wake I felt shaken and melancholy. Neither state was much like my usual self.

-- Stephen King, Christine

[Girlystevedave]

That's a great passage. I think the most beautiful part is:

"That light, so much flooding gold, was nearly terrible in its strange, unexpected beauty."

[zelig]

Yes I love that part. And then when he refers to it later as that ancient spill of golden light.

[zelig]

And since then that voice of disappointed expectation – that cheated child's voice that can never be satisfied with such a mild superlative as good - has fallen pretty much silent. And except for a few rumbles - like the sounds of those unseen creatures somewhere out in the foggy night - it has been pretty much silent ever since. Maybe you can tell me - why should the silencing of that childish, demanding voice seem so much like dying?

-- Stephen King, Skeleton Crew, The Mist.

[zelig]

Was reminded of these quotes today by my journal app. Here's a few reasons why Roadwork is one of my favorite King novels:

###

So we move, and where are we? What are we? Just two strangers sitting in a house that’s sitting in the middle of a lot more strangers’ houses. That’s what we are. The March of Time, Freddy. That’s what it is. Forty waiting for fifty waiting for sixty. Waiting for a nice hospital bed and a nice nurse to stick a nice catheter inside you. Freddy, forty is the end of being young. Well, actually thirty’s the end of being young, forty is where you stop fooling yourself. I don’t want to grow old in a strange place.

###

Mary came in and saw him looking at the TV, his empty scotch-rocks glass in his hand.
"Your dinner's ready, Bart," she said. "You want it in here?

He looked at her, wondering exactly when he had seen the dare-you grin on her lips for the last time...exactly when the little line between her eyes had begun to be there all the time, like a wrinkle, a scar, a tattoo proclaiming age.

You wonder about some things, he thought, that you'd never in God's world want to know. Now why the hell is that?

###

"What were you sbiling about in the living roob, Bart?" Mary asked. Her eyes were red from her cold, and her nose had a chapped, raw look.

"I don't remember," he said, and for the moment he thought: I’ll just scream now, I think. For lost things. For your grin, Mary. Pardon me while I just throw back my head and scream for the grin that's never there on your face anymore. Okay?

[zelig]

“The surf coming in, coming in. Limitless. Clean and deep. We had come here in the summer, Maureen and I, the summer after high school, the summer before college and reality and A6 coming out of Southeast Asia and covering the world like a pall, July, we had eaten pizza and listened to her radio, I had put oil on her back, she had put oil on mine, the air had been hot, the sand bright, the sun like a burning glass.”

— Night Shift, Night Surf, Stephen King

[St. Troy]

Sometimes it's fun to think about those out there that say "King can't write" (at least a few Folio Society fans who checked out their Shining came to that conclusion).

[zelig]

“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.”

— Stephen King, The Body