You discarded most of the lies along the way but held on to the one that said life mattered.

I have always felt a little bit uncomfortable with question [why I'm write these stories]. It's not a question that you would ask a guy that writes detective stories or the guy that writes mystery stories, or westerns, or whatever. But it is asked of the writer of horror stories because it seems that there is something nasty about our love for horror stories, or boogies, ghosts and goblins, demons and devils.

Let's get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.

Upon being asked by a fan how to become a writer, Stephen King replied, "Write.

I think most of us are fascinated by the macabre and by the weird and even the nastiness that comes along.

In the years since, I've discovered there's a lot to be said for boredom.

There seems to be no air in the air she breaths.