60 Stephen King Quotes From His Most Popular Work

By Stephanie Kirby | Published June 23, 2022

There’s no denying that Stephen King is one of the most well-known authors of our time, and these Stephen King quotes give you a feel for some of his greatest works.

What’s your favorite Stephen King novel?

If you are ready to read a book or watch a movie that will give you a good fright, there’s one author’s name that might come to mind—Stephen King.

He has written over 60 novels and his works have sold over 350 million copies.

From the highschool horror story of Carrie to the gruesome twists of works like Misery and The Shining, Stephen King knows how to create stories that keep you on the edge of your seats.

Below is our collection of inspirational, wise and thought-provoking Stephen King quotes and sayings, collected from some of his greatest works.

Don’t forget to also check out our list of timeless Toni Morrison quotes collected just for you.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement.

Read more related content on our inspirational quotes category page.

Stephen King quotes from The Shining

1. “Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: Not everyone or everything in this world is good. In fact, there are some real life monstrous people and situations we encounter. Keep your eyes out and trust your instincts, but don’t become cynical. There is joy and beauty in the world too!

You will also enjoy our article on rain man quotes.

2. “Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: We all have our demons. Some of us more than others. Sometimes, they win the battle. However, they only truly win if you give up the fight. Keep going. Work on yourself, seek healing, and be the best you that you can be!

3. “The tears that heal are also the tears that scald and scourge.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: When you are sitting in a therapy session, crying like you have never cried before it is easy to understand what scalding tears feel like. It won’t feel like healing. However, at some point in the process, they will burn less and you will see how they are releasing the pain and moving you forward. Healing is hard, but you will make it through!

4. “She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: Sadly, emotional trauma exists. It leaves scars and can be even harder to cope with than physical wounds. However, there is hope, and a professional therapist could help you work through this. If you are suffering from pain that people see, reach out and get some help.

5. “The sleep of reason breeds monsters.” – Stephen King

Stephen King quotes about the sleep of reason breeds monsters

Everyday Application: Reason is often defined as “opposition to sensation, perception, feeling, and desire.” Sometimes, when these things are allowed to run rampant they feed into the worst parts of ourselves. However, reason alone also leaves us without these equally important factors. It is all about balance. Do not ignore one side completely in favor of the other.

6. “Wendy? Darling? Light of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just going to bash your brains in.” – Stephen King

You will also enjoy our article on Misery quotes.

7. “How many times, over how many years, had he—a grown man—asked for the mercy of another chance? He was suddenly so sick of himself, so revolted, that he could have groaned aloud.” – Stephen King

8. “This inhuman place makes human monsters.” – Stephen King

Stephen King quotes about this inhuman place makes human monsters

Stephen King quotes from Pet Cemetary

9. “And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: This might just be a terrifying question that we all wonder about sometimes. The good news is that human brain is remarkably resilient. Try to limit being the cause of “horror” in other people’s lives. Treat others how you want to be treated and do the best you can everyday.

10. “Don’t go beyond, no matter how much you feel you need to, Doctor. The barrier was not made to be broken. Remember this: there is more power here than you know. It is old and always restless. Remember.” – Stephen King

11. “Cats were the gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law and often dying there. There were a great many of them who never grew old by the fire.” – Stephen King

Wise and inspirational Stephen King quotes

12. “Hey, police? I just saw the world’s oldest, slowest kid climbing into Pleasantview Cemetery. Looked like he was dying to get in. Yeah, looked like a grave matter to me. Kidding? Oh no, I’m in dead earnest. Maybe you ought to dig into it.” – Stephen King

13. “Maybe she’ll learn something about what death really is, which is where the pain stops and the good memories begin. Not the end of life but the end of pain.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: We can live on in our legacies and memories. Death means that we cease to exist in our human bodies. It doesn’t mean that we suddenly disappear from the minds of those who loved us.

14. “Death is a mystery, and burial is a secret.” – Stephen King

Stephen King quotes about death is a mystery, and burial is a secret

15. “Life sucks, then you die.” – Stephen King

Stephen King quotes about life sucks, then you die

Everyday Application: This is a sad way of looking at life. Sure, there are some sucky parts that can not be avoided, like pain and loss. But, if we are lucky, we get to experience more than just those.

16. “That lesson suggests that in the end, we can only find peace in our human lives by accepting the will of the universe.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: Whether you believe in God, the power of the universe, or some other deity, peace comes when you realize what you can and can not control. You are responsible for the way you react to things, not the fact that bad things happen. Sometimes, our decisions put us in the path of bad things, but all we can do is try to remember that everything happens for a reason.

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of American Horror Story quotes that will terrify you.

Stephen King quotes from Misery

17. “I am your number one fan. There is nothing to worry about. You are going to be just fine. I am your number one fan!” – Stephen King

18. “The rain. Sometimes it gives me the blues. When you first came here, I only loved the writer part of Paul Sheldon. Now I know I love the rest of him, too. I know you don’t love me, don’t say you do. You’re beautiful, brilliant, a famous man of the world and I’m… not a movie star type. You’ll never know the fear of losing someone like you if you’re someone like me.” – Stephen King

19. “No matter how much he strained, it was a good nine inches above the tips of his fingers but he reached anyway, unable to believe Fate or God or Whoever could be so cruel.” – Stephen King

20. “Now the time has come. I put two bullets in my gun. One for me, and one for you. Oh darling, it will be so beautiful.” – Stephen King

21. “I thought you were good Paul… but you’re not good. You’re just another lying ol’ dirty birdy.” – Stephen King

Stephen King quotes that will encourage you

22. “And don’t even think about anybody coming for you. Not the doctors, not your agent, not your family. ‘Cause I never called them. Nobody knows you’re here. You better hope nothing happens to me. Because if I die… you die.” – Stephen King

23. “Book’s almost finished, your legs are getting better. Soon you’ll be wanting to leave.” – Stephen King

24. “God came to me last night and told me your purpose for being here. I am going to help you write a new book.” – Stephen King

25. “What’s the matter? WHAT’S THE MATTER? I will tell you what’s the matter! I go out of my way for you! I do everything to try and make you happy. I feed you, I clean you, I dress you, and what thanks do I get? “Oh, you bought the wrong paper, Anne, I can’t write on this paper, Anne!” Well, I’ll get your stupid paper but you just better start showing me a little appreciation around here, Mr. MAN!” – Stephen King

Also read these Shawshank Redemption quotes from one of Stephen King’s epic works.

Stephen King quotes from Carrie

26. “High school isn’t a very important place. When you’re going you think it’s a big deal, but when it’s over nobody really thinks it was great unless they’re beered up.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: Some people enjoy high school more than others. They may have fond memories and friendships that have remained intact. However, if you are still stuck on who you were in high school, or worse acting like you are still in high school, then you are missing out on essential growth as a person. For teenagers, high school is huge. For adults, life should be so much bigger.

27. “The low bird is not picked tenderly out of the dust by its fellows; rather, it is dispatched quickly and without mercy.” – Stephen King

28. “Sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. It’s what you say when you spill a cup of coffee or throw a gutter ball when you’re bowling with the girls in the league. True sorrow is as rare as true love.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: It can be hard to know what to say when ‘sorry’ just doesn’t do the remorse or sorrow you feel justice. We all make mistakes, but some are worse than others. They will require you to actively make things right (and sometimes you won’t be able to and will have to forgive yourself and let it go). Check out this article for tips on when saying sorry just is not enough.

29. “But hardly anybody ever finds out that their actions really, actually, hurt other people! People don’t get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don’t stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it.” – Stephen King

30. “And suddenly it didn’t seem to matter anymore, nothing would matter if she could turn over, turn over and see the stars, turn over and look once and die.” – Stephen King

31. “Mind over matter in any form is a terrific drain on the body’s resources.” – Stephen King

32. “Telekinesis is the ability to move objects or to cause changes in objects by force of the mind.” – Stephen King

33. “The overall impression is one of a town that is waiting to die. It is not enough, these days, to say that Chamberlain will never be the same. It may be closer to the truth to say that Chamberlain will simply never again be.” – Stephen King

Stephen King quotes from IT

34. “We lie best when we lie to ourselves.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: The human brain will believe what you tell it. What kind of lies are you telling yourself everyday? Do you say unkind things to yourself like, “I am so stupid,” “No one will ever love me,” or “I am just doomed to fail?” Be kinder, because none of these things are actually true! Are you trying to convince yourself that a situation you know is bad for you is actually what you want? Start telling yourself the truth!

35. “Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.” – Stephen King

36. “Come on back and we’ll see if you remember the simplest thing of all – how it is to be children, secure in belief and thus afraid of the dark.” – Stephen King

37. “Everything’s a lot tougher when it’s for real. That’s when you choke. When it’s for real.” – Stephen King

38. “And George saw the clown’s face change. What he saw then was terrible enough to make his worst imaginings of the thing in the cellar look like sweet dreams; what he saw destroyed his sanity in one clawing stroke.” – Stephen King

39. “Politics always change. Stories never do.” – Stephen King

40. “Want a balloon?” – Stephen King

41. “You pay for what you get, you own what you pay for… and sooner or later whatever you own comes back home to you.” – Stephen King

Stephen King quotes from The Green Mile

42. “Like some dogs: kick them once and they never trust you again, no matter how nice you are to them.” – Stephen King

43. “Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.” – Stephen King

44. “The world turns, that’s all. You can hold on and turn with it, or stand up to protest and be spun right off.” – Stephen King

45. “We have once again succeeded in destroying what we could not create.” – Stephen King

46. “Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” – Stephen King

47. “On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That it was my job? My job?” – Stephen King

48. “We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.” – Stephen King

49. “It was sweet and lovely, that smile, perhaps the more so because it wasn’t complicated by much in the way of thought.” – Stephen King

50. “Rightly tired of the pain İ hear and feel, boss… where we’s comin from or goin to or why… If İ could end it, İ would. But İ can’t.” – Stephen King

More Stephen King quotes and sayings

51. “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: This moment is scary because you do not know how things are going to turn out. You are likely entering unchartered territory and are pushing past your comfort zone. You might be afraid of failure (or success), but the fact that you are afraid means that starting down this path matters to you. If it matters enough to be scary, then you should do it!

52. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” – Stephen King

53. “Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” – Stephen King

54. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: Inspiration is a great and powerful feeling. However, if you are going to make a living at a creative task, you have to be willing to put in the work. You can not wait for inspiration to strike. You can do work that doesn’t require you to be inspired. For instance, if you are a writer, maybe you can edit your work in progress. You could also respond to clients, brainstorm some ideas, or read!

55. “The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there…and still on your feet.” – Stephen King

56. “There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.” – Stephen King

57. “People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.” – Stephen King

58. “Fault always lies in the same place: with him weak enough to lay blame.” – Stephen King

59. “The most important things are the hardest to say.” – Stephen King

Everyday Application: The things that matter are scary. Telling someone you love them is scary because you might get rejected and be heartbroken. Telling someone that you don’t love them anymore means your life is going to look different without them and they will be hurt. However, these things are important to share. They need to be said so you can move forward.

60. “We are going to fight. We are going to be hurt. And in the end, we will stand.” – Stephen King