Fiction Quotes by Stephen King

“We all write fiction when we write about the past.”

— Stephen King

“...sense of reality is important in any work of fiction...”

— Stephen King

“Fiction is the unreal estate.”

— Stephen King

...writing fiction...is no job for intellectual cowards.

— Stephen King

When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction.

— Stephen King

“Writing fiction for money is a mug's game.”

— Stephen King

“Never trust anything a fiction writer says about himself.”

— Stephen King

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

— Stephen King

“Reading good fiction is like making the jump from masturbation to sex.”

— Stephen King

Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses.

— Stephen King

Sometimes life coughs up coincidences no writer of fiction would dare copy.

— Stephen King

“Keeping up the fiction. You have to keep it up, sometimes, no matter how you feel.”

— Stephen King

“Not that length and weight alone indicate excellence; many epic tales are pretty much epic crap.”

— Stephen King

Kids, fiction is the truth inside the lie, and the truth of this fiction is simple enough: the magic exists.

— Stephen King

“Fiction is a lie. And GOOD fiction is the truth inside the lie.”

— Stephen King

As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty.

— Stephen King

He would write it for the reason he felt that all great literature, fiction and nonfiction, was written: truth comes out, in…

— Stephen King

Flip-flop, hippety-hop, offa your rocker and over the top, life's a fiction and the world's a lie, so put on some Creedence…

— Stephen King

I've spoken out my whole life against the idea of simply dismissing whole areas of fiction by saying it's "genre" and therefore…

— Stephen King

Most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don’t understand very much about what they do—not why…

— Stephen King

The object of fiction isn't grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story… Writing is seduction. Good…

— Stephen King

I'm a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, most fiction. I don't read in order…

— Stephen King

“It is completely raw, the sort of thing I feel free to do with the door shut—it’s the story undressed, standing up…

— Stephen King

“A few of the gunslingers dance, but only a few. And they were the young ones. The other ones only sat, and…

— Stephen King

Yes, I've made a great deal of dough from my fiction, but I never set a single word down on paper with…

— Stephen King

“Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to…

— Stephen King

The movies have never been a big deal to me. The movies are the movies. They just make them. If they're good,…

— Stephen King

I still think that of all the people doing top fiction today, John D. MacDonald is the best.He was my model as…

— Stephen King

Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes. The object of fiction isn't grammatical correctness but to make…

— Stephen King

In a brilliant fusion of fact and fiction, Jayne Anne Phillips has written the novel of the year. It's the story of…

— Stephen King

I have spent a good many years since―too many, I think―being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before…

— Stephen King

As a young man just beginning to publish some short fiction in the t&a magazines, I was fairly optimistic about my chances…

— Stephen King

There's two kinds of evil that horror fiction always deals with. One kind is the sort of evil that comes from inside…

— Stephen King

“Bill nodded, but he didn’t look hopeful. “The H-H-Himalayans had a rih-hi-hitual to g-get rih-rid of i-i-it, but ih-it’s pretty gruh-gruh-gruesome.” They…

— Stephen King

“I have seen many cases like N. during the five years I've been in practice. I sometimes picture these unfortunates as men…

— Stephen King

The more fiction you read and write, the more you'll find your paragraphs forming on their own.

— Stephen King

I hardly ever read mainstream fiction that deals with life as it is. I like an element of fantasy, something that isn't…

— Stephen King

“If fiction and politics ever really do become interchangeable,I'm going to kill myself,because I won't know what else to do”

— Stephen King

“Writing fiction, especially a long work of fiction can be difficult, lonely job; it’s like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub.…

— Stephen King

This is probably the single great subject of horror fiction: our need to cope with a mystery that can be understood only…

— Stephen King