Stephen King isn’t just the guy who keeps you up at night, flipping pages and double-checking the locks. Sure, he’s the King of Horror, but he’s also a sage when it comes to the complexities of the human soul. Funny, poignant, deep—his words are a lot of things, often all at once. So, grab your flashlight, and let’s dive into the world of the King, where every quote is a story in itself.
1. “It’s strange how pain marks our faces, and makes us look like family.”
― The Green Mile
2. “Explanations are such cheap poetry.”
― 11/22/63
3. “God grant me to SERENITY to accept what I cannot change the TENACITY to change what I may and the GOOD LUCK not to f*** up too often”
― Salem’s Lot
4. “Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.”
― The Shining
5. “It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
― Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
6. “Stupidity is one of the two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances.”
― 11/22/63
7. “People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.”
― The Stand
8. “In the sudden, brief silence, she heard something within her turn over. Perhaps only her soul.”
― Carrie
9. “Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.”
― Under the Dome
10. “Men and women who can’t get over their past… That’s what ghosts are.”
― Needful Things
11. “Love didn’t grow very well in a place where there was only fear.”
― The Stand
12. “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don’t.”
― The Stand
13. “We lie best when we lie to ourselves.”
― It
14. “You want to remember that while you’re judging the book, the book is also judging you.”
― Night Shift
15. “Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters.”
― The Shining
16. “Sooner or later everything you thought you’d left behind comes around again. For good or ill, it comes around again.”
― Insomnia
17. “Love isn’t soft, like those poets say. Love has teeth which bite and the wounds never close.”
― The Body
18. “It’s always wise to check your maybes.”
― Misery
19. “It’s hard to let go. Even when what you’re holding onto is full of thorns, it’s hard to let go. Maybe especially then.”
― Joyland
20. “The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there…and still on your feet.”
― The Stand
21. “Drive away and try to keep smiling. Get a little rock and roll on the radio and go toward all the life there is with all the courage you can find and all the belief you can muster. Be true, be brave, stand.”
― It
22. “We’re only as sick as our secrets.”
― Doctor Sleep
23. “A coward judges all he sees by what he is.”
― The Dark Tower
24. “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.”
― Night Shift
25. “Go then, there are other worlds than these.”
― The Gunslinger
26. “When it came to the dark fu*kery of the human heart, there seemed to be no limit.”
― Full Dark, No Stars
27. “You’d be surprised what a person can live with.”
― Doctor Sleep
28. “FEAR stands for f**k everything and run.”
― Doctor Sleep
29. “The two most beautiful words in any language are: I forgive.”
― The Wind Through the Keyhole
50. “Tell you what, the worst part of growing up is how it shuts you up.”
― Later
Hope you enjoyed this journey through Stephen King’s words as much as I did! If you’re after more dark and delightful quotes, don’t miss our other collections: