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Stephen King Quotes about Writing - Page 5

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Writing good dialogue is art as well as craft.

Writing good dialogue is art as well as craft.

Art, Writing, Crafts

Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft”, p.120, Simon and Schuster

But it's writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can't or won't, it's time for you to close the book and do something else. Wash the car, maybe.

Kings, Book, Writing

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.99, Simon and Schuster

Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as 'good' and other sorts as 'bad' is fearful behavior.

Letting Go, Writing, Needs

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.121, Simon and Schuster

The act of writing itself is done in secret, like masturbation.

Writing, Secret, Done

Stephen King (1994). “Different Seasons”, Signet Book

When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "One word at a time," and the answer is invariably dismissed. But that is all it is. It sounds too simple to be true, but consider the Great Wall of China, if you will: one stone at a time, man. That's all. One stone at a time. But I've read you can see that motherfucker from space without a telescope.

Wall, Writing, Simple

Stephen King (2008). “The Stand”, p.17, Anchor

Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. … The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.

Real, Writing, Differences

"Stephen King says ‘Twilight’ author ‘can't write’". www.today.com. February 4, 2009.

A short story is a different thing all together - a short story is like a kiss in the dark from a stranger.

Writing, Dark, Kissing

I'm still in love with what I do, with the idea of making things up, so hours when I write always feel like very blessed hours to me.

Blessed, Writing, Ideas

"Stephen King on the Creative Process, the State of Fiction, and More". Interview with James Parker, www.theatlantic.com. April 12, 2011.

The idea for each of the stories in this book came in a moment of belief and was written in a burst of faith, happiness, and optimism. Those positive feelings have their dark analogues, however, and the fear of failure is a long way from the worst of them. The worst - for me, at least - is the gnawing speculation that I may have already said everything that I have to say, and am now only listening to the steady quacking of my own voice because the silence when it stops is just too spooky.

Book, Writing, Dark

Stephen King (2009). “Nightmares & Dreamscapes”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

When you sit down to write, write. Don't do anything else except go to the bathroom, and only do that if it absolutely cannot be put off.

Writing, Bathroom, Ifs

The only wat to get better at writing is to write. And read.

Writing, Get Better

If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

Writing, Simple, Tools

Stephen King (2000). “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”, p.174, Simon and Schuster

I would say plotting is the most difficult thing for me. Characterization is only hard because sometimes I feel I get so interested in it that I want to talk too much about the characters and that slows the story down. So I say, "Hey, people want to find out what's going to happen next, they don't want to listen to you spout off about this or that person." But I think even the bad guy deserves to tell his side of the story.

Character, Writing, Thinking

Stephen King, Tim Underwood, Chuck Miller (1988). “Bare bones: conversations on terror with Stephen King”, McGraw-Hill Companies

For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else.

Writing, Details, Description

Stephen King (2001). “On writing: a memoir of the craft”

Part of my function as a writer is to dream awake. And that usually happens. If I sit down to write in the morning, in the beginning of that writing session and the ending of that session, I'm aware that I'm writing. I'm aware of my surroundings. It's like shallow sleep on both ends, when you go to bed and when you wake up. But in the middle, the world is gone and I'm able to see better.

Dream, Morning, Writing

Constant reading will pull you into a place - a mind-set, if you like the phrase - where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness.

Reading, Writing, Self

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.145, Simon and Schuster

Not writing would be like going the rest of your life without having dreams.

Dream, Writing, Would Be

We either learn to accept or we end up writing letters home with crayons.

Home, Writing, Letters

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.

Father, Writing, Kids

Stephen King (2016). “Skeleton Crew”, p.106, Simon and Schuster

The idea that the creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time. Substance abusing writers are just substance abusers — common garden variety drunks and druggies, in other words. Any claims that the drugs and alcohol are necessary to dull a finer sensibility are just the usual self-serving bullshit. I've heard alcoholic snowplow drivers make the same claim, that they drink to still the demons.

Writing, Garden, Self

"On Writing". Book by Stephen King, 1999.

You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.

Reading, Writing, Lessons

Stephen King (2001). “On writing: a memoir of the craft”

The great thing about writing is that...you can do all these antisocial things and you get paid for them and nobody ever arrests you because they're all make-believe. Then that way if you were actually ever driven to do any of those things, the pressure's off because you'd have already written them down. It's therapy.

Believe, Writing, Way

Writers write. That's all it is. It is as simple, and as complex, as that.

Writing, Simple, Complexes

...for the first time in my life, writing was hard. The problem was the teaching...by most Friday afternoons I felt as if I'd spent the week with jumper cables clamped to my brain.

Friday, Teaching, Writing

The more fiction you read and write, the more you'll find your paragraphs forming on their own.

Writing, Fiction, Paragraph

Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.125, Simon and Schuster

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