“He didn’t know if that was really true or not, but he discovered something which was tremendously liberating: he didn’t care. He was very tired of thinking and thinking and still not knowing. He was also tired of being frightened, like a man who has entered a cave on a lark and now begins to suspect he is lost. Stop thinking about it, then. That’s the solution.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“But writers INVITE ghosts, maybe; along with actors and
artists, they are the only totally accepted mediums of our society. They make worlds that never
were, populate them with people who never existed, and then invite us to join them in their
fantasies. And we do it, don't we? Yes. We PAY to do it.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“Cut him. Cut him while I stand here and watch. I want to see the blood flow. Don't make me tell you twice.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“...he was after all, a novelist...and a novelist was simply a fellow who got paid to tell lies. The bigger the lies, the better the pay.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“The George George Stark George Starked over the Starky Stark.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“He sometimes believed that the compulsion to make fiction was no more than a bulwark against confusion, maybe even insanity. It was a desperate imposition of order by people able to find that precious stuff only in their minds . . . never in their hearts.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“I want to make sure I remember what real ugly is. I might want to tell my grandchildren someday.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“Stark lit a Pall Mall himself, picked up one of his Berols, opened his own notebook . . . and then paused. He looked at Thad with naked honesty. “I’m scared, hoss,” he said. And Thad felt a great wave of sympathy for Stark—in spite of everything he knew. Scared. Yes, of course you are, he thought. Only the ones just starting out—the kids—aren’t scared. The years go by and the words on the page don’t get any darker . . . but the white space sure does get whiter. Scared? You’d be crazier than you are if you weren’t. “I know,” he said. “And you know what it comes down to—the only way to do it is to do it.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
“«Sa, anch'io gioco un pochino a tennis, e pensavo...»
«Se lei gioca a tennis solo un pochino, allora probabilmente non è al mio livello.»”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dark Half
Stephen King
Born place: in Portland, Maine, The United States
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“Teague turns to me, his eyes wide as if to say, Let’s go!
Why not! I shrug, and smile and tie my bulky parka around my waist, tuck my gloves into the sleeve, and slip my hand back around Teague’s, pinching myself that his hand is actually still there, where I left it, waiting for me.
We walk onto the makeshift plywood dance floor together, weaving ourselves, our bodies, into the mayhem.
Teague is flawless. A pro.
I’m stiff as a board, and I think too much.
But my Boy Wonder is a patron saint.
He leans in close. “You’re doing great!” he says, his lips brushing against my ear, thank you very much.
He twirls me.
He holds me up.
He looks into my eyes.
Yes, I think I could quite possibly just lie down and die.
I am boosted by his confidence. His spirit. The way he doesn’t seem to care what other people think.
And then this miraculous thing happens.
As we dance--
I tilt my head back and soak it in.
The magic, the unfiltered joy.
I finally just--
Let go.”
― Megan Shull, quote from Amazing Grace
“There is a story I would like to tell you about a woman who practices the invocation of the Buddha Amitabha's name. She is very tough, and she practices the invocation three times daily, using a wooden drum and a bell, reciting, "Namo Amitabha Buddha" for one hour each time. When she arrives at one thousand times, she invites the bell to sound. (In Vietnamese, we don't say "strike" or "hit" a bell.) Although she has been doing this for ten years, her personality has not changed. She is still quite mean, shouting at people all the time.
A friend wanted to teach her a lesson, so one afternoon when she had just lit the incense, invited the bell to sound three times, and was beginning to recite "Namo Amitabha Buddha," he came to her door, and said, "Mrs. Nguyen, Mrs. Nguyen!" She found it very annoying because this was her time of practice, but he just stood at the front gate shouting her name. She said to herself, "I have to struggle against my anger, so I will ignore that," and she went on, "Namo Amitabha Buddha, Namo Amitabha Buddha."
The gentleman continued to shout her name, and her anger became more and more oppressive. She struggled against it, wondering, "Should I stop my recitation and go and give him a piece of my mind?" But she continued chanting, and she struggled very hard. Fire mounted in her, but she still tried to chant "Namo Amitabha Buddha." The gentleman knew it, and he continued to shout, "Mrs. Nguyen! Mrs. Nguyen!"
She could not bear it any longer. She threw away the bell and the drum. She slammed the door, went out to the gate and said, "Why, why do you behave like that? Why do you call my name hundreds of times like that?" The gentleman smiled at her and said, "I just called your name for ten minutes, and you are so angry. You have been calling the Buddha's name for ten years. Think how angry he must be!”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, quote from Being Peace
“...by and by a change came: I started to muse about the shape of my nose. I put my trivial surroundings aside and mused more and more about myself, and I found this to be a bewitching occupation. I stopped asking and longed instead to speak of my thoughts and feelings. Alas, there was no one besides myself who found me interesting.”
― Tove Jansson, quote from Moominpappa's Memoirs
“Now the maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus; as fire, which is the maximum heat, is the cause of all hot things. Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.”
― Thomas Aquinas, quote from Summa Theologica, 5 Vols
“Hell of an ornithologist you'd make.”
― Peter S. Beagle, quote from A Fine and Private Place
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