There is no debate about it: 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, , 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 , , and , 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." —
2. "If being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die." —
3. "A secret needs two faces to bounce between; a secret needs to see itself in another pair of eyes." —
4. "The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool." —
5. "Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty." —
6. "We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones." —
7. "We lie best when we lie to ourselves." —
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." —
9. "The world has teeth and it can bite you with them any time it wants." —
10. "A person who doesn’t learn from the past is an idiot, in my estimation." —
11. "When all else fails, give up and go to the library." —
12. "But writing is a wonderful and terrible thing. It opens deep wells of memory that were previously capped." —
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." —
14. "Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not." —
15. "Sometimes the embers are better than the campfire." —
16. "Memory is the basis of every journey." —
17. "The scariest moment is always just before you start." —
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." —
19. "Only a silly person would try to start a good work with a bad tool." —
20. "Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around." —
21. "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." —
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." —
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." —
24. "We never cease wanting what we want, whether it’s good for us or not." —
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." —
26. "Monsters are real. Ghost are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win." —
27. "There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst." —
28. "It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living, or get busy dying." —
29. "No great thing is created suddenly." —
30. "Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once." —
31. "Art should be a place of hope." —
32. "We fool ourselves so much we could do it for a living." —
33. "When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction." —
34. "True sorrow is as rare as true love." —
35. "Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair." —
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." —
37. "Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on." —
38. "The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited." —
39. "There is no bad time for good news." —
40. "It ain’t the blows we’re dealt that matter, but the ones we survive." —
41. "Nothing in nature is that even; man is the inventor of straight edges." —
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." —
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." —
44. "A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men." —
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?" —
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." —
47. "If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered." —
48. "Only sooner or later even the fastest runners have to stand and fight." —
49. "Anger is the most useless emotion, destructive to the mind and hurtful to the heart." —
50. "People who call themselves realists are often the biggest optimists of all." —
