Stephen King

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.

Some people are saying that the film 'Joker' is dangerous, and it is. Because it's so good. It's so good.

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them — words make them seem smaller than they were when they were in your head. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important.

When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'One word at a time,' and the answer is always true.

Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egotistical little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings.

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

Books are a uniquely portable magic.

Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

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

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

Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's.

The mind can be a dark and scary place, but it can also be a beautiful and wondrous one.

You can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will.

Get busy living or get busy dying.

The thing under the bed waiting to grab your ankle isn't necessarily a monster. Maybe it's just a ghost of your own fear, waiting to be acknowledged.

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.