Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, and fantasy novels. Profoundly inspirational Stephen King quotes will make you look at life differently and help you live a meaningful life.
If you’re searching for clever quotes by great authors that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of profound Victor Hugo quotes, amazing Tennessee Williams quotes and top Tom Robbins quotes.
Famous Stephen King Quotes
Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. Stephen King
Books are a uniquely portable magic. Stephen King
When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, Why god? Why me? and the thundering voice of God answered, There’s just something about you that pisses me off. Stephen King
If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write. Simple as that. Stephen King
The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there and still on your feet. Stephen King
Get busy living or get busy dying. Stephen King
Fear can hold you, prisoner. Hope can set you free. Stephen King
Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life. Stephen King
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. Stephen King
Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. Stephen King
We lie best when we lie to ourselves. Stephen King
When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, Why god? Why me? and the thundering voice of God answered, There’s just something about you that pisses me off. Stephen King
In polite society, we call our obsessions hobbies. Stephen King
Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once. Stephen King
Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. Stephen King
Fiction is the truth inside the lie. Stephen King
But sorry is the Kool Aid of human emotions. True sorrow is as rare as true love. Stephen King
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
No good friends, no bad friends; only people you want, need to be with. People who build their houses in your heart. Stephen King
The road to hell is paved with adverbs. Stephen King
Love isn’t soft like the poets say. Love has teeth which bite and the wounds never close. Stephen King
The scariest moment is always just before you start. Stephen King
Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation. Stephen King
Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure. Stephen King
When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction. Stephen King
Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good. Stephen King
Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. Stephen King
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. Stephen King
The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish them. Stephen King
I think that we’re all mentally ill. Those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better and maybe not all that much better after all. Stephen King
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. Stephen King
If you liked being a teenager, there’s something really wrong with you. Stephen King
If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered. Stephen King
Alone. Yes, that’s the key word, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn’t hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym. Stephen King
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s. Stephen King
A short story is a different thing altogether a short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger. Stephen King
Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters. Stephen King
Go then, there are other worlds than these. Stephen King
I think that we’re all mentally ill. Those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better and maybe not all that much better after all. Stephen King
Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding. Stephen King
The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool. Stephen King
The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn’t real. I know that, and I also know that if I’m careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle. Stephen King
Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call society. Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home. Stephen King
Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman’s got to hold on to. Stephen King
When you’re five and you hurt, you make a big noise in the world. At ten you whimper. But by the time you make fifteen you begin to eat the poisoned apples that grow on your own inner tree of pain. Stephen King
That wasn’t any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery. Stephen King
It was life, often unsatisfying, frequently cruel, usually boring, sometimes beautiful, once in a while exhilarating. Stephen King
Hearts can break. Yes, hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don’t. Stephen King
The devil’s voice is sweet to hear. Stephen King
Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. Stephen King
People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad. Stephen King
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s. Stephen King
The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn’t real. I know that, and I also know that if I’m careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle. Stephen King
A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar. Stephen King
The brain is a muscle that can move the world. Stephen King
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. Stephen King
When all else fails, give up and go to the library. Stephen King
There are books full of great writing that don’t have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story don’t be like the book snobs who won’t do that. Read sometimes for the words the language. Don’t be like the play it safers who won’t do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book. Stephen King
Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe. Stephen King
Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy. Stephen King
I think that friendship always makes us feel such sweet gratitude because the world almost always seems like a very hard desert, and the flowers that grow there seem to grow against such high odds. Stephen King
We lie best when we lie to ourselves. Stephen King
If you liked being a teenager, there’s something really wrong with you. Stephen King
The 3 types of terror The Gross out the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it’s when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it’s when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there. Stephen King
The most important things to remember about back story are that everyone has a history and most of it isn’t very interesting. Stephen King
There’s no bitch on earth like a mother frightened for her kids. Stephen King
You can’t polish a turd. Stephen King
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. Stephen King
Hearts can break. Yes, hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don’t. Stephen King
Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not. Stephen King
That was what I wanted, but I don’t need it to be gone. I can love you and I can love life and bear the pain all at the same time. I think the pain might even make the rest better, the way a good setting can make a diamond look better. Stephen King
Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call society. Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home. Stephen King
I am always chilled and astonished by the would be writers who ask me for advice and admit, quite blithely, that they don’t have time to read. This is like a guy starting up Mount Everest saying that he didn’t have time to buy any rope or pitons. Stephen King
Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule. Stephen King
There’s nothing as human as hunger. There’s no creation without talent, I give you that, but talent is cheap. Talent goes begging. Hunger is the piston of art. Stephen King
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. Stephen King
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 don’t. Stephen King
Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters. Stephen King
Don’t give me what I ask for, give me what I need. Stephen King
Maybe there aren’t any such things as good friends or bad friends maybe there are just friends, people who stand by you when you’re hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they’re always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe worth dying for too, if that’s what has to be. No good friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who build their houses in your heart. Stephen King
It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright. Stephen King
Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings. Stephen King
What Darwin was too polite to say, my friends is that we came to rule the earth not because we were the smartest or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle. Stephen King
In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it got boring, the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball Rolling. Stephen King
You have to stay faithful to what you’re working on. Stephen King
The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there and still on your feet. Stephen King
Talent is a wonderful thing, but it won’t carry a quitter. Stephen King
And will I tell you that these three lived happily ever after? I will not, for no one ever does. But there was happiness. And they did live. Stephen King
You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Stephen King
Time is a keyhole We sometimes bend and peer through it. And the wind we feel on our cheeks when we do the wind that blows through the keyhole is the breath of all the living universe. Stephen King
Schizoid behavior is a pretty common thing in children. It’s accepted, because all we adults have this unspoken agreement that children are lunatics. Stephen King
Books are the perfect entertainment no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life. Stephen King
When asked, How do you write? I invariably answer, One word at a time, and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will one stone at a time, man. That’s all. One stone at a time. But I’ve read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope. Stephen King
But I believe in love, you know; love is uniquely portable magic. I don’t think it’s in the stars, but I do believe that blood calls to blood and mind calls to mind and heart to heart. Stephen King
A tragedy is a tragedy, and at the bottom, all tragedies are stupid. Give me a choice and I’ll take A Midsummer Night’s Dream over Hamlet every time. Any fool with steady hands and a working set of lungs can build up a house of cards and then blow it down, but it takes a genius to make people laugh. Stephen King
Alone. Yes, that’s the keyword, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn’t hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym. Stephen King
We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why. Stephen King
And as a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react. Stephen King
It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright. Stephen King
Kids, fiction is the truth inside the lie, and the truth of this fiction is simple enough the magic exists. Stephen King
The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool. Stephen King
I dreamed of you. I dreamed you were wandering in the dark, and so was I. We found each other. We found each other in the dark. Stephen King
But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you. Stephen King
We don’t know the days that will change our lives. Probably just as well. Stephen King
There’a a phrase, the elephant in the living room, which purports to describe what it’s like to live with a drug addict, an alcoholic, an abuser. People outside such relationships will sometimes ask, How could you let such a business go on for so many years? Didn’t you see the elephant in the living room? And it’s so hard for anyone living in a more normal situation to understand the answer that comes closest to the truth; I’m sorry, but it was there when I moved in. I didn’t know it was an elephant; I thought it was part of the furniture. There comes an aha moment for some folks the lucky ones when they suddenly recognize the difference. Stephen King
Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Stephen King
Time takes it all whether you want it to or not, time takes it all. Time bares it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again. Stephen King
