There is no debate about it: Stephen King is one of the most famous and successful writers in the world. While his name is synonymous with the horror genre, King is also known for his works of suspense, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. Starting with his debut novel, Carrie, first published nearly 50 years ago, his books have sold more than 350 million copies. Over his career, King has received many accolades, including Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and a National Medal of Arts.
With a number of iconic books like The Stand, It, and The Shining, King has created dozens of legendary characters whose catchphrases and quotes immediately bring us back to his dark, eerie worlds whenever we hear them. And with tens of thousands of published pages to his name, there are certainly a lot of gems to choose from.
It is King's versatility, his skills as a writer, and his ability to tap into our fears that makes Uncle Stevie so eminently quotable. Even though King writes mainly terrifying books, his works are also full of wisdom, heart, humor, and compassion. He can be scaring your pants off one minute, and really making you think about humankind the next. Here are 50 of the best quotes from the master of the macabre: Stephen King.
1. "Some things it don’t pay to be curious about." —Pet Sematary
2. "If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die." —Christine
3. "A secret needs two faces to bounce between; a secret needs to see itself in another pair of eyes." —Christine
4. "The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool." —Needful Things
5. "Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty." —The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
6. "We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones." —Danse Macabre
7. "We lie best when we lie to ourselves." —It
8. "And almost idly, in a kind of side-thought, Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought." —It
9. "The world has teeth and it can bite you with them any time it wants." —The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
10. "A person who doesn’t learn from the past is an idiot, in my estimation." —11/22/63
11. "When all else fails, give up and go to the library." —11/22/63
12. "But writing is a wonderful and terrible thing. It opens deep wells of memory that were previously capped." —Revival
13. "Love didn’t grow very well in a place where there was only fear, just as plants didn’t grow very well in a place where it was always dark." —The Stand
14. "Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not." —The Green Mile
15. "Sometimes the embers are better than the campfire." —The Green Mile
16. "Memory is the basis of every journey." —Dreamcatcher
17. "The scariest moment is always just before you start." —On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
18. "I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. When you find something at which you have talent, you do that thing (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes pop out of your head." —On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
19. "Only a silly person would try to start a good work with a bad tool." —Misery
20. "Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around." —On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
21. "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." —On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
22. "Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that." —On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
23. "One of the great things about tales is how fast time may pass when not much of note is happening. Real life is never that way, and it is probably a good thing." —The Eyes of the Dragon
24. "We never cease wanting what we want, whether it’s good for us or not." —Full Dark, No Stars
25. "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." —Night Shift
26. "Monsters are real. Ghost are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win." —The Shining
27. "There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst." — Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
28. "It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living, or get busy dying." — Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
29. "No great thing is created suddenly." —Doctor Sleep
30. "Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once." —The Long Walk
31. "Art should be a place of hope." —Duma Key
32. "We fool ourselves so much we could do it for a living." —Duma Key
33. "When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction." —Joyland
34. "True sorrow is as rare as true love." —Carrie
35. "Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair." —Skeleton Crew
36. "I was being paid to do what I loved, and there's no gig on earth better than that; it's like a license to steal." —Bag of Bones
37. "Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on." —Bag of Bones
38. "The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited." —Bag of Bones
39. "There is no bad time for good news." —Cujo
40. "It ain’t the blows we’re dealt that matter, but the ones we survive." —Rose Madder
41. "Nothing in nature is that even; man is the inventor of straight edges." —The Mist
42. "He shook his head as if to deny it, but of course you can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants." —Hearts in Atlantis
43. "Hearts can break. Yes. Hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don’t." —Hearts in Atlantis
44. "A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men." —Under the Dome
45. "It’s funny how close the past is, sometimes. Sometimes it seems as if you could almost reach out and touch it. Only who really wants to?" —From a Buick 8
46. "For readers, one of life’s most electrifying discoveries is that they are readers—not just capable of doing it, but in love with it. Hopelessly. Head over heels." —Finders Keepers
47. "If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered." —Salem’s Lot
48. "Only sooner or later even the fastest runners have to stand and fight." —Just After Sunset
49. "Anger is the most useless emotion, destructive to the mind and hurtful to the heart." —The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
50. "People who call themselves realists are often the biggest optimists of all." —The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
