Stories are artifacts, not really made things which we create and can take credit for, but pre-existing objects which we dig up.

He remembered waking up once, listening to the wind, thinking of all the dark and rushing cold outside and all the warmth of this bed, filled with their peaceful heat under two quilts, and wishing it could be like this forever.

Whenever I publish a book, I feel like a trapper caught by the Iroquois. They're all lined up with Tomahawks, and the idea is to run through with your head down, and everybody gets to take a swing. They hit you in the head, the back, the ass, and the balls.

I do have one slightly crooked wheel upstairs, but everything else is ticking along just four-o, thank you very much.

He had come to believe that life was a series of ironic ambushes. - Doctor Sleep

I write about rats because they scare the hell out of me. I think we tend to write out our phobias.

Kids absolutely not reading. I think it's because they're so screen-oriented [TVs, computers, smartphones]. They do read - girls in particular read a lot. They have a tendency to go toward the paranormal, romances, Twilight and stuff like that. And then it starts to taper off because other things take precedence, like the Kardashian sisters.