Stories Quotes by Stephen King

Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke and a story's just a story

— Stephen King

Politics always change. Stories never do.

— Stephen King

“Stories take a person away. If they're good ones, that is.”

— Stephen King

When I start a story, I don't know where it's going.

— Stephen King

“Storytelling always changes time.”

— Stephen King

Remember that 'plumber in space' is not such a bad setup for a story.

— Stephen King

A short story is like a kiss in the dark.

— Stephen King

Without story books is like a person with no soul.

— Stephen King

“As it happens, I think that in really good stories, the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts.”

— Stephen King

When the reader hears strong echoes of his or her own life and beliefs, he or she is apt to become more…

— Stephen King

A person’s never too old for stories. Man and boy, girl and woman, we live for them. - Roland Deschain

— Stephen King

Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us.

— Stephen King

I think telling stories is like pushing something. Pushing against uncreation itself, maybe.

— Stephen King

I never think of stories as made things; I think of them as found things. As if you pull them out of…

— Stephen King

Stories are artifacts, not really made things which we create and can take credit for, but pre-existing objects which we dig up.

— Stephen King

I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.

— Stephen King

The ghost story movie that scared me the most was The Changeling with George C. Scott. I think that's sometimes overlooked, but…

— Stephen King

I never have a thematic intention at the outset. The story informs the theme for me rather than the other way around.…

— Stephen King

There are a lot of people in the field [ of horror stories] that I do read. There is a lot of…

— Stephen King

For me, that emotional payoff is what it’s all about. I want you to laugh or cry when you read a story...or…

— Stephen King

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but…

— Stephen King

When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all…

— Stephen King

I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint; every line in the…

— Stephen King

I'm afraid of all kinds of things. I'm afraid of failing at whatever story I'm writing - that it won't come up…

— Stephen King

There are, occasionally, writers who are able to combine both story and style. They are, of course, the best. You get a…

— Stephen King

I believe these stories exist because we sometimes need to create unreal monsters and bogies to stand in for all the things…

— Stephen King

It had that comfortably sprung, lived-in look that library books with a lively circulation always get; bent page corners, a dab of…

— Stephen King

I would say plotting is the most difficult thing for me. Characterization is only hard because sometimes I feel I get so…

— Stephen King

There are books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story... don't be like the…

— Stephen King

There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes a good opening line. It's tricky thing, and tough to talk…

— Stephen King

There is a story in the book Night Shift, called 'The Mangler,' about a laundry machine that takes on a sort of…

— Stephen King

I have always felt a little bit uncomfortable with question [why I'm write these stories]. It's not a question that you would…

— Stephen King

we need ghost stories because we, in fact, are the ghosts.

— Stephen King

Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world.

— Stephen King

That's the curse of the reading class. We can be seduced by a good story even at the most inopportune moments.

— Stephen King

The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t…

— Stephen King

I like to end stories where the readers have a little room to run. They can resolve things as they like in…

— Stephen King

Story is honorable and trustworthy; plot is shifty, and best kept under house arrest.

— Stephen King

I never saw any of my dad's stories. My mother said he had piles and piles of manuscripts.

— Stephen King

As a rule, I don't worry about genre. I just want to tell a good story, with characters that interest me and…

— Stephen King