Stephen King: The Rolling Stone Interview

We had nothing. I mean, I was working at a gas station. I was pumping gas. And then when I graduated from school, she was still in school. Then when I got a job working at a wet-wash laundry because I couldn't get a teaching job, we had jack shit for money. She was working in a Dunkin' Donuts when I…

— Stephen King, rollingstone.com

How to be a writer

When you find somebody like, let's say, Ted Bundy, who tortured and killed all those women and sometimes went back and had sex with the dead bodies, I don't think when you look at his upbringing... That behavior was hard-wired. Evil is inside us. The older I get, the less I think there's some sort o…

— Stephen King, rollingstone.com

Evil Why we believe what we believe Violence Why people are such dicks

I choose to believe in God because it makes things better. You have a meditation point, a source of strength. I don't ask myself, "Well, does God exist or does God not exist?" I choose to believe that God exists, and therefore I can say, "God, I can't do this by myself. Help me not to take a drink t…

— Stephen King, rollingstone.com

Religion Why we believe what we believe

It was this assumption that if fiction was selling a lot of copies, it was bad. If something is accessible to a lot of people, it's got to be dumb because most people are dumb. And that's elitist. I don't buy it.

— Stephen King, rollingstone.com

the ivory tower

Hemingway sucks, basically. If people like that, terrific. But if I set out to write that way, what would've come out would've been hollow and lifeless because it wasn't me.

— Stephen King, rollingstone.com

Horror How to be a writer Why we believe what we believe

It's built in. That's all. The first movie I ever saw was a horror movie. It was Bambi. When that little deer gets caught in a forest fire, I was terrified, but I was also exhilarated. I can't explain it. My wife and kids drink coffee. But I don't. I like tea. My wife and kids won't touch a pizza wi…

— Stephen King, rollingstone.com

Horror Why we believe what we believe

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