“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are things you get ashamed of, because words make them smaller. When they were in your head they were limitless; but when they come out they seem to be no bigger than normal things. But that's not all. The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried; they are clues that could guide your enemies to a prize they would love to steal. It's hard and painful for you to talk about these things ... and then people just look at you strangely. They haven't understood what you've said at all, or why you almost cried while you were saying it.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Love isn’t soft, like those poets say. Love has teeth which bite and the wounds never close.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Speech destroys the function of love, I think-that's a hell of a thing for a writer to say, I guess, but I believe it to be true. If you speak to tell a deer you mean it no harm, it glides away with a single flip of its tail. Love has teeth; they bite; the wounds never close. No word, no combination of words can close those love bites. it's the other way around, that's the joke. If those wounds dry up, the words die with them.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Gordie: Do you think I'm weird?
Chris: Definitely.
Gordie: No man, seriously. Am I weird?
Chris: Yeah, but so what? Everybody's weird”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Homesickness is not always a vague, nostalgic, almost beautiful emotion, although that is somehow the way we always seem to picture it in our mind. It can be a terribly keen blade, not just a sickness in metaphor but in fact as well. It can change the way one looks at the world; the faces one sees in street look not just indeferent but ugly...perhaps even malignant. Homesickness is real sickness--the ache of the uprooted plant" the breathing method”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“It's hard to make strangers care about the good things in your life.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“And I wonder if there is really any point to what I'm doing, or what I'm supposed to make of a world where a man can get rich playing "let's pretend”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“I'll see you.'
He grinned. 'Not if i see you first.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them--words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were In your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. 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 that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Teddy, Vern, Chris: I don't shut up. I grow up. And when I look at you, I throw up. Aghhh!
Gordie: And then your mom goes around the corner and she licks it up.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“A great whispering noise began to rise in the woods on either side of the tracks, as if the forest had just noticed we were there and was commenting on it.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Feeling it, trying to understand the suns that shone on it, the rains that fell on it, and the snows that covered it. And to wonder where I was when each thing happened to it in its lonely place, where I was, what I was doing, who I was loving, how I was getting along, where I was. I’d hold it, read it, feel it... and look at my own face in whatever reflection might be left.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Gordie: Alright, alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?
Vern: If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That's easy-Pez. Cherry-flavored Pez. No question about it.
Teddy: Goofy's a dog. He's definitely a dog.
Gordie: I knew the $64,000 question was fixed. There's no way anybody could know that much about opera!
Chris: He can't be a dog. He drives a car and wears a hat.
Gordie: Wagon Train's a really cool show, but did you notice they never get anywhere? They just keep wagon training.
Vern: Oh, God. That's weird. What the hell is Goofy?”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The Writer: [voiceover] I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only twelve hundred and eighty-one people. But to me, it was the whole world.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Chris: I'm never gonna get out of this town am I, Gordie?
Gordie: You can do anything you want, man.
Chris: Yeah, sure. Give me some skin.
Gordie: I'll see ya.
Chris: Not if I see you first.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words make them smaller. When they were in your head, they were limitless; but when they come out they seem to be no bigger than normal things.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The most important things are the hardest things to say”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Chris: How do you know if a Frenchman has been in your backyard?
Teddy: Hey, I'm French, okay?
Chris: Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant.
[Chris and Gordie laugh]
Teddy: Didn't I just say I was French?”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“You always know the truth, because when you cut yourself or someone else with it, there's always a bloody show.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Винаги познаваш истината, защото като се сблъскаш или някой друг се сблъска с нея, винаги става кърваво зрелище.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“But it was the first time I had ever really used the place I knew and the things I felt in a piece of fiction, and there was a kind of dreadful exhiliration in seeing things that had troubled me for years come out in a new form, a form over which I had imposed control.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The only two useful art forms are religion and stories.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Friends come and go like waiters in a restaurant, did you ever notice that? [...] Some people drown, that’s all. It’s not fair, but it happens”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“Everything seemed to stand out with a special dearness, and although I never could have said that out loud I didn't think it mattered - maybe that sense of dearness was something I wanted just for myself.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“It seemed right to do it this way, because the rite of passage is a magic corridor and so we always provide an aisle - it's what you walk down when you get married, what they carry you down when you get buried. Our corridor was those twin rails, and we walked between them, just bopping along toward whatever this was supposed to mean.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. 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 that you've said it all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried when you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an uderstanding ear.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The most important thing, are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them—words shrink things that were in your head to more than living size when they are brought out. 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 that your enemies would love to steal away. And you 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 that it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst I think. When a secret stays locked in not for want of teller but for want of understanding ear.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“სიტყვები ხომ სიყვარულს ანადგურებს. ვიცი, საშინელებაა, როცა მწერალი ასეთ რამეს ამბობს, მაგრამ, მგონი, ასეა. ირემს რომ უთხრა, ნუ გეშინია, არაფერს გავნებო, კუდს მოიქნევს და გაგისხლტება. სიტყვებიც სწორედ ასე ვნებს სიყვარულს. სიყვარული ხომ ის არ არის, რაც მავან ცინგლიან პოეტს ჰგონია. სიყვარულს კბილები აქვს და იკბინება. მისი ნაკნები არასოდეს რჩება. სიტყვების ვერავითარი კომბინაცია ვერ მოარჩენს სიყვარულის ნაკბენს. ხოლო ჭრილობა თუ შეხორცდა, მაშინ სიტყვებიც კვდება, მთელი ირონიაც ესაა. დამიჯერეთ, თავს სიტყვებით ვირჩენ და ვიცი, რასაც ვამბობ.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
“The most important things are the hardest things to say.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Body
Stephen King
Born place: in Portland, Maine, The United States
See more on GoodReads
“But there we are. Some things never do make perfect sense. There must be some explanation, and it is perhaps a little like the Doctrine of the Perfect Partner. We must be content to know that she exists, somewhere in the world, and try not to care overmuch that we will probably never meet her.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from Inversions
“Okay, so we’re in Georgia. I can do this. I’m not just the new girl. I’m a vampire. I don’t have to be afraid of mean girls and gossip anymore. I could snap their necks in half—er, not that I will or anything, but it’s nice to know that I can.”
― quote from Never Bite a Boy on the First Date
“Neither blindness nor ignorance corrupts people and governments. They soon realize where the path they have taken is leading them. But there is an impulse within them, favored by their natures and reinforced by their habits, which they do not resist; it continues to propel them forward as long as they have a remnant of strength. He who overcomes himself is divine. Most see their ruin before their eyes; but they go on into it.1 Leopold von Ranke”
― Joachim Fest, quote from Hitler
“I was speechless and utterly craving what he had just declared.”
― K.M. Golland, quote from Temptation
“You said, there was no harm in wondering. You said, it’d just be a peek, And you said, don’t be a mother hen. You said, you could land on your feet. But we both know now, You had to learn somehow. Alice, dear, things in mirrors are not as they seem. Stop risking it all on one of your lunatic schemes.”
― Marni Bates, quote from Awkward
The Goldfinch
Along for the Ride
Beastly
Fablehaven
Red Queen
All the Pretty Horse...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
