Stephen King Quotes

If you don`t have the time to read, you don`t have the time or the tools to write.

You must not come lightly to the blank page.

You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair–the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.

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

You can`t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

You can`t deny laughter. When it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

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

Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit but taste completely different.

(on playing the role of Jordy Verrill in Creepshow) "If I had written it for myself, I would have put in at least one sex scene!"

I`ve killed enough of the world`s trees.

I`m a salami writer. I try to write good salami, but salami is salami.

I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I`ll go for the gross-out. I`m not proud.

(on directing "Maximum Overdrive") I didn`t get the job because I went to film school. I got the job because I`m Stephen King. If you become famous enough, they`ll let you hang yourself in Times Square with live TV coverage.

Rob Reiner, who made Stand By Me, is one of the bravest, smartest filmmakers I have ever met, and I`m proud of my association with him. I am also mused to note that the company Mr. Reiner formed following the success of Stand By Me is Castle Rock Productions... a name with which many of my long time readers will be familiar.

(on film adaptations of his work) I don`t feel any urge to control after I sign a piece of paper. I say, "See you later. You have what you need and I have what I want. As long as the check doesn`t bounce, you and I are quits."

If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn`t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.

I know writers who claim not to read their notices, or not to be hurt by the bad ones if they do, and I actually believe two of these individuals. I`m one of the other kind - I obsess over the possibility of bad reviews and brood over them when they come. But they don`t get me down for long; I just kill a few children and old ladies, and then I`m right as a trivet again.

(Asked why he hasn`t personally directed more movies) Just watch "Maximum Overdrive."

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

I`ve had a deal for years with Castle Rock Entertainment that goes back to `Stand By Me`. I have told them that you can have my work for a buck. What I want from you is script approval, director approval, cast approval, and I want to have the authority to push the stop button at any point regardless of how much money you (the production company) have invested, because none of the money you have put in has gone into my pocket. What I get on the back end, if things work out, is 5 percent from dollar one.

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk.

I salute the National Book Foundation Board, who took a huge risk in giving this award to a man many people see as a rich hack. (from his acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation`s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, 2003)

Like anything else that happens on its own, the act of writing is beyond currency. Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.

If you don`t have the time to read, you don`t have the time or the tools to write.

I love the movies, and when I go to see a movie that`s been made from one of my books, I know that it isn`t going to be exactly like my novel because a lot of other people have interpreted it. But I also know it has an idea that I`ll like because that idea occurred to me, and I spent a year, or a year and a half of my life working on it.

For every six crappy poems you read, you`ll actually find one or two good ones. And that, believe me, is a very acceptable ratio of trash to treasure.

When asked, `How do you write?` I invariably answer, `one word at a time.`

Each life makes its own imitation of immortality.

American grammar doesn`t have the sturdiness of British grammar (a British advertising man with a proper education can make magazine copy for ribbed condoms sound like the Magna goddam Carta), but it has its own scruffy charm

Books are a uniquely portable magic

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

...Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

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

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