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10 Scarily Good Quotes from Stephen King

By September 21, 2016September 21st, 2018Authors, Quotations

Born on September 21st 1947 in Portland Maine Stephen King is a name synonymous with all things horror. His novels cover a vast range of subjects but all of them are guaranteed to leave you feeling just a little bit unsettled. It is well known that if King’s wife Tabitha had not pulled the unfinished draft of Carrie from the bin, read it and declared it worth finishing that her husband would probably still be a teacher and there would be no such thing as a Constant Reader.

With a life that includes drug addiction, alcoholism and almost being killed by a van being driven by a drunk and his dog, Stephen King continues to delight and horrify his loyal fans in equal measure, and here, for Constant Readers and new ones too are 10 scarily good quotes from Stephen King.

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”

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



“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.”

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

“Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding.”

“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.”



“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.”

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

“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.”

If those quotes have piqued your interest and you fancy picking up a King novel and taking your first steps into becoming a Constant Reader, have a look through King’s extensive bibliographies which are available here.

Stephen King US
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