sure, we need the gypsies. we always have. because if you don't have someone to run out of town once in a while, how are you going to know you yourself belong there?

You know what talent is? The curse of expectation. As a kid you have to deal with that, beat it somehow. If you can write, you think God put you on earth to blow Shakespeare away. Or if you can paint, maybe you think--I did--that God put you on earth to blow your father away.

Roland had taught him that self-deception was nothing but pride in disguise, an indulgence to be denied.

Twas something else. I had come to hate her, you see. I had come to wish her dead, and that was what held me back.

The boat dipped and swayed and sometimes took on water, but it did not sink; the two brothers had waterproofed it well. I do not know where it finally fetched up, if it ever did; perhaps it reached the sea and sails there forever, like a magic boat in a fairytale. All I know is that it was still afloat and still running on the breast of the flood when it passed the incorporated town limits of Derry, Maine, and there it passes out of this tale forever.

I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.

It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost.