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If ever there was a list of quotes we wanted to do, this is it - Stephen King quotes. So, with slightly trembling hands and hearts filled with excitement, we’ve compiled it, tried to write an intro that’s not over-the-top exuberant, and now are leaving it to your, dear readers, judgment. Ready to take a look at the most excellent, heavily inspiring, and totally powerful quotes from Stephen King, only the most accomplished storyteller if there ever was one? 

If you haven’t had the chance to read any of Stephen King’s books yet or know nothing about the King of Horror himself, here are a few cool facts about him. Mister King has written hundreds of literary pieces, with 49 novels under his name, seven more under his pen names, five non-fiction books, and around 200 short stories. And all of them are better than the last!

Stephen King was certain that his fame was completely accidental and thus started to write books under his pen name. When they got just as popular as the ones written under his real name, the writer gave up and admitted that his popularity wasn’t, after all, an accident. And lastly, once upon in 1996, King collaborated with Michael Jackson himself to create a short horror movie together. Oh, and since we’ve mentioned movies, there are at least 91 of them based on King’s works. So, if you’re not a huge fan of reading, you can experience this master’s writing through cinema. Beware, though; they are definitely spooky!

Speaking of these powerful quotes here - some of them come from interviews with the writer, while others are book quotes from his famous novels. So while they weren’t technically spoken by him, they still came from his very own head, which makes them totally count. After all, some of the best Stephen King quotes do come from his writings, rather than public speeches!

Anyhoo, we’ll never be as good as the Master of Horror at this writing gig (although quotes from Stephen King on writing do help a lot), so it’s best to end our love-filled intro to this long-awaited quotes list right about now.

Scroll down below, check out the incredible quotes from this world-famous writer, and upvote the ones that impacted you the most! And lastly, we’re pretty sure these quotes by Stephen King would benefit anyone who reads them, so why not share this article with your friends? 

#1

Stephen King quote about monsters and ghosts “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” - Stephen King

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#2

Stephen King quote about teenagers “If you liked being a teenager, there's something really wrong with you.” - Stephen King

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#3

“We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.” - 11/22/63

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#4

“Quiet people have the loudest minds.” - Stephen King

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#5

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” - Stephen King

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#6

Stephen King quote about scare “I tend to scare myself.” - Stephen King

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#7

“Adults are the real monsters.” — It

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#8

“Memory is the basis of every journey.” — Dreamcatcher

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#9

“Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.” - Stephen King

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#10

“The most important things are the hardest to say.” — Different Seasons

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#11

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” - Stephen King

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#12

“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

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#13

“The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as long swallows.” - Stephen King

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#14

“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

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#15

“People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.” - Stephen King

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#16

“Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy, too.” - Hearts in Atlantis

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#17

“We need ghost stories because we, in fact, are the ghosts.” — Danse Macabre

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#18

“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.” — Tom Cullen, The Stand

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#19

“You must not come lightly to the blank page.” - Stephen King

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#20

“Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different.” - Stephen King

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#21

“You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.” - Stephen King

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#22

“Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.” - Stephen King

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#23

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams quote about books "When a long book succeeds, the writer and reader are not just having an affair; they are married." - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

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#24

"Anger is the most useless emotion, destructive to the mind and hurtful to the heart." - Song of Susannah

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#25

“Get busy living, or get busy dying.” — Andy Dufresne, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

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#26

“Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.” - Stephen King

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#27

“We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” — Danse Macabre

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#28

“When asked, ‘How do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time.'” - Stephen King

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#29

“You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.” - Stephen King

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#30

Skeleton Crew quote about reading “Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair.” — Skeleton Crew

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#31

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” - Stephen King

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#32

“Nobody likes a clown at midnight.” - Stephen King

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#33

“There had never been a shortage of fools in the world.” — The Drawing of the Three

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#34

“We lie best when we lie to ourselves.” — It

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#35

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.” - Stephen King

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#36

“Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on.” - Bag of Bones

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#37

“People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.” - Judge Farris, The Stand

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#38

“Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.” - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

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#39

“You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” - Stephen King

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#40

Stephen King quote about paranoia “Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness.” - Stephen King

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#41

“No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.” - Wolves of the Calla

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#42

Pet Sematary quote about horror “And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity.” - Pet Sematary

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#43

"But writing is a wonderful and terrible thing. It opens deep wells of memory that were previously capped." - Revival

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#44

"Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild." - Stephen King

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#45

Stephen King quote about fight "Sooner or later even the fastest runners have to stand and fight." - Stephen King

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#46

"A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men." - Under the Dome

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#47

"The world has teeth and it can bite you with them any time it wants." - The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

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#48

11/22/63 quote about past "A person who doesn’t learn from the past is an idiot, in my estimation." - 11/22/63

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#49

"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

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#50

Needful Things quote about trust “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” - Needful Things

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#51

“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered.” — Matt Burke, ‘Salem’s Lot

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#52

“It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.” — Susannah Dean, Wolves of the Calla

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#53

“There are things of such darkness and horror - just, I suppose, as there are things of such great beauty—that they will not fit through the puny human doors of perception.” — Skeleton Crew, The Mist, Chapter XI. The End

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#54

“Frightened people live in their own special hell. You could say they make it themselves, but they can’t help it. It’s the way they’re built. They deserve sympathy and compassion.” — Revival

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#55

“It is the tale, not he who tells it.” — King, Different Seasons: Four Novellas

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#56

The Colorado Kid quote about writing “I write to find out what I think.” — The Colorado Kid

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#57

“When you write you tell yourself a story. When you rewrite you take out everything that is NOT the story.” - Stephen King

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#58

“Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment.” - Stephen King

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#59

“Whatever came to mind, whatever came to hand, I would read.” - Stephen King

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#60

“Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us.” — ‘Salem’s Lot

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#61

“I guess when you turn off the main road, you have to be prepared to see some funny houses.” - Stephen King

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#62

“Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters.” — The Shining

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#63

“Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” — The Green Mile

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#64

“Life turns on a dime.” — 11/22/63

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#65

“The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.” — The Stand

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#66

“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.” - Storm of the Century

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#67

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” - Stephen King

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#68

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

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#69

“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

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#70

“That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fu**ery.” - The Stand

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#71

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

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#72

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” - Stephen King

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#73

“Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.” - Stephen King

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#74

“The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows.” - Stephen King

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#75

“It's strange how pain marks our faces, and makes us look like family.” - The Green Mile

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#76

“Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.” - Different Seasons

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#77

“You want to remember that while you're judging the book, the book is also judging you.” - Night Shift

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#78

Stephen King quote about writing and water “Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.” - Stephen King

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#79

“I'm one of those people who doesn't really know what he thinks until he writes it down.” - 11/22/63

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#80

"It ain’t the blows we’re dealt that matter, but the ones we survive." - Rose Madder

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#81

"There is no bad time for good news." - Cujo

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#82

Stephen King quote about life "Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again." - Stephen King

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#83

“Real love is silent as well as blind.” - Larry Underwood, The Stand

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#84

“And in real life endings aren’t always neat, whether they’re happy endings, or whether they’re sad endings.” - Stephen King

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#85

“Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always comes around to where you started again.” - Stephen King

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#86

“Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” — Andy Dufresne, Rita Hayward and Shawshank Redemption

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#87

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

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#88

The Gunslinger quote about enemies, friends and lovers “Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.” — The Gunslinger

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#89

Full Dark, No Stars quote about hell “He supposed that even in hell, people got an occasional sip of water, if only so they could appreciate the full horror of unrequited thirst when it set in again.” — Full Dark, No Stars

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#90

Stephen King quote about scare “I thought it was great fun to scare people. I also knew it was socially acceptable because there were a lot of horror movies out there.” - Stephen King

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#91

“A short story is a different thing altogether—a short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger.” — Skeleton Crew

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#92

“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

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#93

Stephen King quote about lie “Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly.” - Stephen King

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#94

“A man who lies about beer makes enemies.” — Pet Sematary

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#95

Carrie quote about people “People don’t get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don’t stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it.” — Carrie

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#96

“Go then, there are other worlds than these.” — Jake Chambers, The Gunslinger

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#97

Christine quote about secrets “A secret needs two faces to bounce between; a secret needs to see itself in another pair of eyes.” — Christine

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#98

Stephen King quote about lonely “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

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#99

“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

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#100

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” - The Gunslinger

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#101

“When all else fails, give up and go to the library.” - 11/22/63

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#102

Stephen King quote about time “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

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#103

“Fault always lies in the same place: with him weak enough to lay blame.” - Stephen King

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#104

The Gunslinger quote about time “Time's the thief of memory.” - The Gunslinger

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#105

“Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.” - The Green Mile

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#106

“Sometimes dead is better” - Jud Crandall, Pet Sematary

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#107

“There came a time when you realized that moving on was pointless. That you took yourself with you wherever you went.” - Doctor Sleep

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#108

“A person can't change all at once.” - Larry Underwood, The Stand

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#109

“What can be done when you’re eleven can often never be done again.” - It, Chapter 22. The Ritual of Chüd

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#110

"We are going to fight. We are going to be hurt. And in the end, we will stand." - The Drawing of the Three

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#111

"If I have to spend time in purgatory before going to one place or the other, I guess I’ll be all right as long as there’s a lending library." - Stephen King

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#112

“I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.” - Stephen King

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