Quotes by Stephen King

And when there are enough outsiders together in one place, a mystic osmosis takes place and youre inside.

Men who find themselves late are never sure. They are all the things the civics books tell us the good citizen should be: partisans but never zealots, respectors of the facts which attend each situation but never benders of those facts, uncomfortable in positions of leadership but rarely unable to turn down a responsibility once it has been offered . . . or thrust upon them. They make the best leaders in a democracy because they are unlikely to fall in love with power.

Most politicians lie for the same reason a monkey swings by his tail, which is to say because he can.

A mob always picked its own leaders, and it always picked the right ones.

The worlds a hard place, Danny. It dont care. It dont hate you and me, but it dont love us, either. Terrible things happen in the world, and theyre things no one can explain. Good people die in bad, painful ways and leave the folks that love them all alone. Sometimes it seems like its only the bad people who stay healthy and prosper. The world dont love you, but your momma does and so do I.

She cant help it, he said. Shes got the soul of a poet and the emotional makeup of a junkyard dog.

Your man Jesus seems to me a bit of a son of a bitch when it comes to women,´Roland said. ´Was He ever married?´The corners of Callahans mouth quirked. ´No´ he said, ´but His girlfriend was a whore.´´Well,´ Roland said, ´thats a start.´

Thank you, Men, for the railroads. Thank you, Men, for inventing the automobile and killing the red Indians who thought it might be nice to hold on to America for a while longer, since they were here first. Thank you, Men, for the hospitals, the police, the schools. Now Id like to vote, please, and have the right to set my own course and make my own destiny. Ince I was chattel, but now that is obsolete. My days of slavery must be over; I need to be a slave no more than I need to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a tiny boat with sails. Jet planes are safer and quicker than little boats with sails and freedom makes more sense than slavery. I am not afraid of flying. Thank you, Men.

No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.Or you dont.

I changed it. I had to. Do you know why? She studied him, her eyes grave. Because that was then and this is now. Because the past is gone, even though it defines the present.

A change is as good as a rest.

You know, small children take it as a matter of course that things will change every day and grown-ups understand that things change sooner or later and their job is to keep them from changing as long as possible. It’s only kids in high school who are convinced they’re never going to change. There’s always going to be a pep rally and there’s always going to be a spectator bus, somewhere out there in their future.

the late afternoon sunlight, warm as oil, sweet as childhood ...

Isnt bravery always sort of beautiful?

Writers remember everything...especially the hurts. Strip a writer to the buff, point to the scars, and hell tell you the story of each small one. From the big ones you get novels. A little talent is a nice thing to have if you want to be a writer, but the only real requirement is the ability to remember the story of every scar.Art consists of the persistence of memory.

It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isnt in the middle of the room. Life isnt a support system for art. Its the other way around.

The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited.

How to Draw a Picture (XII)Know when youre finished, and when you are, put your pencil or your paintbrush down. All the rest is only life.

Come to the book as you would come to an unexplored land. Come without a map. Explore it and draw your own map.

Obliqueness is the curse of the reading class.