Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1 “I’m afraid of everything”: The Mist press conference, November 13, 2007.

1 “I’ll just keep on typing till I get to a safe number”: Bare Bones, p. 37.

1 “the sums of these numbers add up to thirteen”: Castle Rock, September 1987.

2 “I can only get it so small”: Dennis Miller Live, April 3, 1998.

2 “the fact that I’m not doing it nags at me”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

3 “gathered at your fence snapping pictures”: Castle Rock, February 1989.

3 “who wants to be the best at what he does”: New York Times, August 13, 2000.

4 “because their fathers are gone”: Dream Makers, 2: 279.

4 “Writers don’t outgrow it”: Weekly Reader Writing magazine, October 2006.

4 “all of this makes him wonderful company”: Tenebres.com, 2000.

5 “get on with the work”: Bare Bones, p. 70.

CHAPTER ONE: APT PUPIL

10 “trouble came easy to him”: Bare Bones, p. 35.

12 “some years after the fact”: Danse Macabre, p. 116.

12 “ ‘My, that’s crisp!’ ”: Bare Bones, p. 41.

13 “Write one of your own”: On Writing, p. 28.

14 “beyond anything I have ever felt”: Ibid., p. 24.

14 “about what my name is!”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

14 “he was an unperson”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

15 “Tell them he’s in the navy”: Entertainment Weekly, September 27, 2002.

15 “her other sisters kept their husbands”: Ibid.

15 “bulging out as the bat hits it”: Bare Bones, p. 210.

16 “I’m going to write this junk”: Ibid.

16 “in a frame like a movie screen”: Bare Bones, p. 128.

16 “you can go insane quite easily”: Ibid.

16 “worried about my sanity a lot”: 60 Minutes, February 16, 1997.

16 “you were in pain or frightened or sad”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

16 “you were supposed to behave”: Faces of Fear, p. 241.

17 “young and very credulous age”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

17 “a figure of happiness and fun being evil”: Weekly Reader Writing magazine, October 2006.

17 “I’d get pneumonia and die”: Bare Bones, p. 39.

18 “into orbit around Earth called Sputnik”: Ibid.

18 “and it went away”: Faces of Fear, p. 243.

18 “I spent a lot of miserable hours”: Boston Globe, April 15, 1990.

18 “by a terrible old lady in black”: Bare Bones, p. 40.

18 “the corpse opened its eyes and looked at me”: Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia, p. 19.

19 “as clearly now as when it happened”: Writers Dreaming, p. 135.

20 “bends your mind a little”: Ibid.

20 “and all juvenile fiction for me”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

21 “total senile dementia and was incontinent”: New Yorker, September 7, 1998.

21 “Good God, you’re warped”: Bare Bones, p. 61.

22 “these people are not”: Hollywood’s Stephen King, p. 6.

22 “and get out of his way”: Feast of Fear, p. 245.

22 “it was in a lot of people”: 60 Minutes, February 16, 1997.

22 “ ‘here’s the starting line, GO!’ ”: Stephen King: Master of the Macabre, TLC/BBC documentary, 1999.

22 “tough even if you weren’t”: Bare Bones, p. 115.

22 “sort of work it out for myself”: Ibid., 33, 34.

23 “streaming with sweat”: Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia, p. 52.

23 “it affected him deeply”: Ibid., p. 58.

24 “he was more isolated than we were”: Ibid.

24 “a great big Cadillac!”: Ibid.

24 “I’d be in another world”: Bare Bones, p. 25.

CHAPTER TWO: HEAD DOWN

26 “He hit the sidewalk and splattered”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

26 “before she finally drowned”: Ibid.

27 “you’d always be pregnant”: I Want to Be Typhoid Stevie.

27 “got in your clothes, your hair”: New York Times, October 26, 1988.

28 “disembodied vaginas and things that have teeth”: Salon, September 24, 1998.

29 “nobody wanted to see her change the mold”: Feast of Fear, p. 11.

30 “never really did very much”: Weekly Reader Writing magazine, October 2006.

30 “That’s why he left the marriage”: Ibid.

31 “one of them was retarded”: Feast of Fear, p. 254.

31 “something awful will happen”: The Mist press conference, November 13, 2007.

31 “somebody to haul off on me”: Feast of Fear, p. 90.

32 “jump out at him or scare him”: Weekend Edition, May 10, 2003.

32 “were taunters instead of tauntees”: Keynote address, annual meeting, Vermont Library Conference, May 26, 1999.

32 “which is fine by me”: Weekend Edition, May 10, 2003.

33 “robots reading my work”: Castle Rock, March 1987.

34 “making out like crazy in the backseat”: Ben Rawortit interview.

35 “with her on his lap”: Stephen King Country, p. 40.

36 “pissed off and confused”: Mid-Life Confidential, p. 30.

36 “possibly smoke?”: Ibid., p. 31.

37 “Don’t ever forget it”: Writer’s Digest, October 1977.

40 “sit right up and beg for it like dogs”: Stephen King from A to Z, p. 87.

40 “It was very unsettling”: Bare Bones, p. 66.

CHAPTER THREE: THE GUNSLINGER

41 “already formed even back then”: UMO Alumni Magazine, Fall 1989.

41 “He created his own world”: Ibid.

43 “a place for us at the table”: Bangor Daily News, January 23, 2008.

44 “my teachers at college”: Dream Makers, 2: 27.

45 “can be seriously damaged emotionally”: Bare Bones, p. 43.

46 “these kids just weren’t prepared for it”: Highway Patrolman, July 1987.

47 “really dangerous in a lot of ways”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

47 “for a number of different stories I’ve written”: Salon, September 24, 1998.

47 “you’re going to find in a garbage truck”: UMO Alumni Magazine, Fall 1999.

48 “occasionally disappear into our own realm”: Maine Campus, December 18, 1969.

48 “with a filthy mouth and a vapid mind”: Maine Campus, November 13, 1969.

48 “a serious decision about birth control”: Maine Campus, August 1, 1969.

49 “but with no control”: Ibid.

49 “would write more than horror stories”: UMO Alumni Magazine, Fall 1999.

50 “a version of himself that rang true”: Ibid.

50 “yet public in a loud way”: Ibid.

51 “the part of a very wild man”: Ibid.

52 “a lot of bullshit like that”: Amazon.com, September 1998.

52 “he got a letter into the paper before I did”: New Hampshire Sunday News, June 27, 1993.

52 “because he couldn’t afford shoes”: Biography: Stephen King, 2000.

52 “even more incredible that he didn’t care”: Guardian, September 18, 2004.

52 “He also was hot for my boobs”: Boston Globe, June 4, 2006.

52 “as a tough broad”: Time, October 6, 1986.

53 “from part of the store”: New Hampshire Sunday News, June 27, 1993.

53 “they couldn’t harm me”: Castle Rock, December 1987.

54 “that didn’t get me anywhere either”: Bangor Daily News, March 4, 1997.

54 “if she likes something”: Powells.com, October 2006.

55 “a couple of hundred willing young virgins”: Castle Rock, June 1985.

56 “how long it took to tell the tales”: Amazon.com, March 2003.

CHAPTER FOUR: DESPERATION

57 “in a display of righteous anger”: New Yorker, April 22, 2002.

57 “would have been talking grand larceny”: Ibid.

58 “the forgetful pump jockey”: Ibid.

60 “for an extraordinarily long time”: Feast of Fear, p. 236.

61 “Who the fuck are you?” Ibid.

61 “It used to make me crazy”: Ibid.

61 “a Nazi-salute kind of typeface”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

61 “not being in that Saturday evening”: Stephen King Country, p. 224.

62 “look a doughnut in the face ever since”: Bare Bones, p. 30.

62 “not seeing each other, it wasn’t good”: Writer’s Digest, June 2007.

62 “this traditional family home life”: Boston Globe, April 15, 1990.

62 “when I was in the laundry”: New Yorker, September 7, 1998.

63 “an opinion on Willy Loman’s depression”: Castle Rock, February 1986.

63 “twins having sex in a birdbath”: Feast of Fear, p. 247.

64 “I better slap one together”: Bare Bones, p. 46.

64 “I didn’t really like it”: Lilja’s Library, January 16, 2007.

65 “don’t sell too well to Cosmopolitan”: Bare Bones, p. 85.

65 “the better you can do it”: Ibid.

66 “Girls are even more mysterious”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

66 “when you’re badly hurt”: Bare Bones, p. 94.

66 “I’ll help you”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

66 “a few different ways to fix it”: NPR Morning Edition, November 19, 2003.

67 “electrical equipment from the rock band”: Bare Bones, p. 86.

67 “from behind the desk”: Ibid., p. 16.

67 “I felt depressed and really down”: Ibid., p. 73.

68 “he always took the time to write”: Stephen King from A to Z, p. 93.

68 “a pretty good sense of humor”: Ibid.

69 “ ‘we wrote our way out’ ”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

69 “ ‘Why don’t you get an actual job?’ ”: National Book Foundation acceptance speech, November 19, 2003.

69 “you can’t take it”: Ibid.

69 “pissed away half the food budget for that week”: Bare Bones, p. 31.

69 “why anyone wants to be a social drinker”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

70 “by teaching a creative-writing course”: Bare Bones, p. 32.

70 “to occasional outright hate”: Ibid.

70 “she told me she understood”: Ibid.

70 “burning of money that drove me nuts”: Biography: Stephen King, 2000.

70 “underwear had holes in it in those days”: Bare Bones, p. 83.

70 “we’ve got to pay as we go”: Bankrate.com, October 31, 2006.

70 “channeled into about a dozen stories”: National Book Foundation acceptance speech, November 19, 2003.

71 “it’s depressing, and it’s fantasy”: Bare Bones, p. 94.

72 “if Doubleday didn’t accept Carrie”: Ibid., p. 33.

73 “I scuttled across those streets, looking both ways”: Faces of Fear, p. 246.

74 “someone opened a prison door”: Yale Bulletin & Calendar, May 2, 2003.

74 “we were out of that trap for good”: Bare Bones, p. 33.

74 “to live with my brother in Mexico, Maine”: New Yorker, September 7, 1998.

74 “She got very exasperated with me”: Faces of Fear, p. 246.

75 “but that’s okay, let ’em! I’ll be writing”: Dream Makers, 2: 278.

75 “all sorts of things within that framework”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

75 “it’s vampires from the first”: Bare Bones, p. 102.

76 “they don’t read Weird Tales”: Ibid.

76 “that just wasn’t the same”: Bare Bones, p. 51.

76 “by God, he is too old”: Feast of Fear, p. 77.

76 “forced out the obstruction”: Bare Bones, p. 42.

CHAPTER FIVE: RIDING THE BULLET

78 “That could be a snake”: Yale Bulletin & Calendar, May 2, 2003.

78 “it was so deep”: Bare Bones, p. 67.

78 “I had the whole book in my mind”: The Province, Dienstag, April 1997.

78 “because of my brutal impulses”: Ibid.

79 “the realities of fatherhood”: Ibid.

79 “about my kids that I never expected”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

79 “I could kill him”: Ibid.

79 “I’m trying to keep the hex off”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

79 “when I finished with the scene, it was gone”: Yankee, March 1979.

79 “I was writing about myself”: Guardian, September 18, 2004.

80 “performing a kind of self-psychoanalysis”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

80 “was to lie about it”: Feast of Fear, p. 94.

80 “this guy has just written my book”: Ibid., p. 98.

80 “and stanch the flow, I’d just die”: Ibid.

80 “You carry your place with you wherever you go”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

81 “as many books and stories as he could churn out: Castle Rock, May 1986.

81 “You don’t have to do things you don’t want to do”: Writer’s Digest, 1976.

82 “a Sturm and Drang quality that’s absent from the film”: Bare Bones, p. 28.

82 “and they’d step back”: Fresh Air, November 21, 2003.

83 “ ‘Thank you for saying that, for articulating that thought’ ”: Ibid.

83 “like having a Swiss bank account”: Kingdom of Fear, p. 127.

84 “what people don’t want them to know”: Feast of Fear, p. 253.

85 “because he wouldn’t shut up”: Ibid., p. 181.

85 “It pops up again, and again, and again”: Bare Bones, p. 105.

86 “you’re entertaining yourself too, you know”: Publishers Weekly, January 17, 1977.

87 “we feared for both Owen’s death and his life”: Castle Rock, August 1987.

87 “have to introduce him all over again”: Biography: Stephen King, 2000.

88 “begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel”: Yankee, March 1979.

88 “ugly and unpleasant most of the time”: Bare Bones, p. 16.

88 “That’s the mad-bomber side of my character, I suppose”: Ibid., p. 30.

88 “as though I’d invented it myself”: Creepshows, p. 89.

89 “we’ll kill the messenger that brought the bad news”: Bare Bones, p. 129.

90 “put them in school for a year abroad”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

90 “It was like my umbilical cord had been cut”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

90 “I swear to you, they don’t like being warm”: Letter from Susie Straub.

91 “you feel like a freak”: Castle Rock, March 1987.

92 “responsible for destroying anybody’s ego completely”: Bare Bones, p. 76.

93 “I don’t know why”: Writers Dreaming, p. 142.

93 “they would bury them in the sandbox in our backyard”: Castle Rock, August 1987.

93 “Then they’d have a little after-burial party”: Ibid.

94 “Mommy and Daddy collapsed on the lawn”: Ibid.

94 “And that was the end of it. Almost”: Ibid.

94 “I found that very, very hard to read and deal with”: Biography: Stephen King, 2000.

94 “maybe I could sell these to a magazine of short stories”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

95 “So we do for others”: Good Housekeeping, September 2001.

95 “and not hurt anyone if you can help it”: New York Times, August 13, 2000.

95 “Hold on, let me finish this paragraph!”: Stephen King from A to Z, p. 238.

CHAPTER SIX: THE RUNNING MAN

96 “there had to be a way to improve on nature”: Age, November 25, 2006.

96 “He is not now and never has been an alcoholic”: Mystery Ink, 1979.

97 “they have all the good munchie food too”: Bare Bones, p. 206.

97 “I’d order a beer and Steve would order three”: Master of the Macabre, TLC/BBC Documentary, 1999.

98 “that’s why their faces retain a youthful look”: Bare Bones, p. 38.

98 “I am a dickey bird on the back of civilization”: Ibid.

98 “ ‘that’s not funny, that’s horrible!’ ”: Castle Rock, March 1987.

99 “a real big plot and subplots”: Times of London, October 21, 2006.

99 “all the pillows have been treated with low-grade poison gas”: Bare Bones, p. 68.

100 “which is typical of writers”: Ibid., p. 72.

100 “and you let them do that”: Dream Makers, 2: 277.

101 “I feel like I’ve earned it”: Bare Bones, p. 68.

101 “try to convey some of that in my fiction”: Salon, September 24, 1998.

102 “once you are north of Freeport”: Hollywood’s Stephen King, p. 3.

102 “there are no distractions whatsoever”: Feast of Fear, p. 254.

103 “I thought it was destiny”: Stephen King Companion, p. 77.

104 “I capture the bat and put it out while he just screams”: Stephen King Country, p. 86.

104 “Tabby wanted spiders and webs”: Ibid.

104 “I wanted superhero characters, not demonic characters”: Ibid.

105 “The chair was empty”: “An Interview with Stephen King,” by Janet Beaulieu, November 17, 1988.

105 “a medium said she had a message from her”: Highway Patrolman, July 1987.

105 “denies that there is a link between smoking and lung cancer”: Ibid.

105 “I didn’t even take the shaving cream off my face”: Feast of Fear, p. 109.

106 “This is the book”: Bare Bones, p. 133.

106 “except admire it as sculpture”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

106 “There was no moral struggle at all”: Feast of Fear, p. 100.

106 “my childhood was quite happy, in a solitary way”: Faces of Fear, p. 241.

107 “only from a more mature perspective”: Ibid., p. 222.

107 “and then went where I wanted”: Ibid.

107 “it will crystallize a scene for me”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

108 “A part of me dies when the World Series is over”: Faces of Fear, p. 227.

108 “maybe white guys can do something in sports”: Ibid.

108 “not only is this house vacant but it’s haunted”: Castle Rock, August 1987.

108 “part of them wants to see you fall as far as you can”: Ibid.

108 “The fan had obviously done this often”: Castle Rock, December 1986.

108 “like the ones Lennon used to wear”: London Observer, August 9, 1998.

109 “there are real crazy people out there”: Castle Rock, August 1987.

CHAPTER SEVEN: DIFFERENT SEASONS

110 “some publisher thought they would make sales on the novelty”: Castle Rock, December 1987.

110 “she had turned out a damned fine piece of work”: Bare Bones, p. 46.

110 “as he did with mine”: Faces of Fear, p. 222.

111 “boredom often leads to actual thought, exploration, and discovery”: Onyx Reviews, May 2006.

111 “But once I start, I’m hard to turn off”: Castle Rock, December 1987.

111 “and then entering the story”: Writer’s Digest, June 2007.

111 “ ‘Just let me go ahead and get on with the work’ ”: Bare Bones, p. 70.

111 “or what’s going to happen with it”: Ibid., p. 74.

112 “I didn’t know how long”: Complete Encyclopedia of Stephen King, p. 18.

113 “it takes for them to work out their problem”: Writer’s Digest, September 1991.

113 “But you never know when it’s going to happen”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

113 “it’s short and it’s mean”: Times of London, October 21, 2006.

113 “It was tougher to react sympathetically to the woman”: Feast of Fear, p. 234.

114 “But what’s there is honest enough”: Ibid.

115 “And I like it that way”: Bare Bones, p. 199.

115 “because it pushes the old buttons”: Ibid., p. 200.

115 “The bl-o-o-d-y parts!”: Feast of Fear, p. 223.

115 “only because their father’s famous”: Ibid.

115 “It’ll be interesting to see what happens”: Ibid.

116 “as part of the company’s highest-level strategy”: Publishers Weekly, February 26, 2007.

117 “what is this tower and why does this guy need to get there?”: “An Interview with Stephen King,” by Janet Beaulieu, November 17, 1988.

117 “toss out our nightmares for the consumption of others”: Castle Rock, March 1987.

117 “who would watch Attack of the Crab Monsters four times”: Feast of Fear, p. 127.

118 “about ten pounds hanging off it”: Stephen King Country, p. 58.

118 “it was so funny”: Ibid., p. 59.

118 “you know when you’re doing a bad job”: Feast of Fear, p. 138.

118 “how Wile E. Coyote looks when he falls off a cliff?”: Stephen King at the Movies, p. 29.

119 “so he went to work”: Bare Bones, p. 81.

119 “For a little kid, it was a blast”: New York Times, March 18, 2007.

119 “That’s right, just a movie, officers”: Stephen King at the Movies, p. 80.

120 “not the way they did”: Ibid.

121 “and really screw our eyes out”: Bare Bones, p. 45.

121 “I don’t really need to fool around”: Ibid.

121 “I wouldn’t dare cheat on her!”: Ibid., p. 46.

121 “Infidelity is a shooting offense”: Publishers Weekly, February 10, 1997.

121 “it just slammed shut and cut your penis off”: Bare Bones, p. 189.

121 “before I got up on the goddamn scales”: Kingdom of Fear, p. 142.

122 “make me do all these terrible things to save my life”: Ibid.

122 “somebody started to lose weight and couldn’t stop”: Ibid.

122 “and I use everything”: Bare Bones, p. 90.

123 “because they loved it too”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

123 “And you don’t miss what’s not there”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

123 “maybe that’s just a lot of horseshit, I don’t know”: The Province, Dienstag, April 22, 1997.

123 “because their fathers are gone”: Dream Makers, p. 278.

124 “with a real tendency toward violence”: Salon, September 24, 1998.

124 “I’m pretty sure my father’s dead”: Bare Bones, p. 35.

124 “after you’ve done your important work”: Dream Makers, 2: 281.

125 “all the things that are not the story”: On Writing, p. 57.

125 “and at that point they’ll be right”: Dream Makers, 2: 282.

125 “Nobody ever talked about Plymouth cars anymore”: Twilight Zone, February 1984.

126 “any mainstream Hollywood actor I could think of”: Fangoria, July 1984.

127 “it makes us forget it is supernatural”: Chicago Sun-Times, October 26, 1983.

128 “she’ll accuse me of stealing one of her ideas”: Monsterland Magazine, May 1985.

128 “imagine what it would be like to be such a person”: Castle Rock, August 1987.

128 “don’t write anything like he does”: Ibid.

128 “merely another flawed human being”: Ibid.

128 “if it was okay to have breakfast”: Ibid.

129 “balls-to-the-wall rock music can provide”: Castle Rock, October 1987.

129 “like I’m on my student driver’s permit”: Feast of Fear, p. 195.

129 “That book came out of a real hole in my psyche”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

130 “and I don’t really believe that”: USA Today, May 10, 1985.

CHAPTER EIGHT: MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

132 “I’m the Firestarter, I’m Charlie McGee”: Creepshows, p. 38.

132 “and a resounding failure as a film”: Ibid., p. 39.

132 “attacking these movies”: Ibid.

132 “much less than the sum of those parts”: Ibid.

132 “the most astonishing thing in the movie is how boring it is”: Chicago Sun-Times, January 1, 1984.

133 “our own repertory company of dragons, vampires, assorted Things”: Murderess Ink, 1979.

133 “there was nothing there to watch”: Feast of Fear, p. 94.

133 “It’ll pass”: Ibid., p. 101.

133 “and the ultimate comedy at the same time”: Boston Globe, April 15, 1990.

134 “I got the job for a while”: Ibid.

134 “in the window of a live sex show on Forty-second Street”: Fantasy Review, January 1984.

134 “whore duty for some marketing guy”: Ibid.

135 “And in a small town, you only have one”: Talk of the Nation, February 9, 1999.

135 “I should just write under a different name”: New York Times, March 18, 2007.

136 “It’s not the fucking Mona Lisa”: New York Times, August 13, 2000.

136 “maybe that’s why they live science fiction”: Dream Makers, 2: 275.

137 “It became a mission for me to respect Steve’s privacy”: Kingdom of Fear, p. 129.

137 “ ‘You can’t copy him,’ they said”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

137 “The poor guy was one ugly son of a bitch”: Kingdom of Fear, p. 124.

138 “This is what Stephen King would write like if Stephen King could really write”: Ibid., p. 132.

138 “I was about eighty percent convinced Bachman was Stephen King”: Ibid., p. 124.

138 “Let’s talk”: Ibid., p. 125.

138 “they all have downbeat endings”: Ibid., p. 132.

138 “and his fear was that he would lead his audiences astray”: Ibid.

138 “died of cancer of the pseudonym”: Castle Rock, June 1987.

139 “in this case, Richard Bachman”: Creepshows, p. 54.

139 “I deserved to be because it was lazy”: Writer’s Digest, September 1991.

139 “you think is a dead giveaway, it’s a trick”: Stanley Wiater interview, 1984 World Fantasy Convention.

139 “unsure myself who had written what”: Encyclopedia of Stephen King, p. 58.

140 “carried in their back pockets to work”: Fangoria, p. 10.

140 “if the actor happens to be a Mack truck”: Feast of Fear, p. 186.

141 “would be easier than working with actors”: Castle Rock, September 1986.

141 “always gave me more than I expected”: Feast of Fear, p. 186.

141 “and sort of allow you to mess up”: Talk of the Nation, February 9, 1999.

141 “or the other thing if it’s bad news”: Stephen King at the Movies, p. 72.

142 “I just can’t see going through that kind of thing again”: Feast of Fear, p. 262.

142 “as if the Porn Fairy had visited in the middle of the night”: Castle Rock, July 1986.

142 “I really didn’t know what I was doing”: Hollywood’s Stephen King, p. 20.

142 “he did seem to be strung out”: Entertainment Weekly, September 27, 2002.

143 “we’re renting them”: Feast of Fear, p. 279.

143 “Then it might seem real”: Newsweek, June 10, 1985.

143 “and take another walk in the afternoon”: Faces of Fear, p. 256.

143 “that I always have in mind”: Ibid.

144 “they changed the batteries in the smoke detector?”: Ibid., p. 239.

144 “I’m afraid of what it’s doing to my life”: Ibid.

144 “but it puts you on a pedestal”: Castle Rock, August 1986.

144 “I’m just another woman driving around with a dog in her car”: Castle Rock, January 1986.

145 “If keeping him in the car until the bell rings makes him feel better, then okay”: Bare Bones, p. 56.

145 “they know what you’re going to do”: Bare Bones, p. 13.

145 “they’ll get sucked in”: Ibid., p. 95.

145 “I put all the monsters in that book”: Ibid., p. 176.

146 “I wanted to write about a real troll under a real bridge”: Secret Windows, p. 322.

146 “dropped it into the book, and didn’t change a thing”: Writers Dreaming, pp. 137–38.

147 “it’s still in the books today”: Salon, September 24, 1998.

147 “I started to get a lot of that stuff back”: Writers Dreaming, p. 141.

147 “I don’t seem to have so much to say about kids anymore”: Feast of Fear, p. 199.

149 “we don’t get locked in dark closets”: Castle Rock, August 1986.

149 “that’s the honest truth”: Ibid.

149 “It definitely motivated me to write more”: SDCC, July 27, 2007.

150 “His eyes are everywhere, trying to take in everything at once”: The Lost Work of Stephen King, p. 249.

CHAPTER NINE: THE LONG WALK

151 “She has very little interest in my vampires, ghoulies, and slushy crawling things”: Castle Rock, February 1987.

151 “if she won’t come to me, I’ll go to her”: Fangoria, p. 34.

152 “have the author do more than just answer it”: Castle Rock, March 1987.

152 “The book is the boss”: Ibid.

152 “any more than I could stop breathing”: Fangoria, p. 36.

152 “He plans to continue writing but publish less”: Castle Rock, September 1987.

153 “or my life or my bedroom or anything else. Fangoria, p. 80.

153 “what I have achieved was really meant for them”: Fresh Air, November 21, 2003.

153 “I hope he’s still discovering the unknown in me”: Castle Rock, August 1987.

153 “how much you do and do not know about another person”: Ibid.

153 “she actually generated a lot more sympathy in my heart than I expected”: Weekly Reader Writing magazine, October 2006.

153 “and didn’t have a clue”: Ibid.

154 “I write like fat ladies diet”: New Yorker, September 7, 1998.

154 “it can lead to self-indulgence”: Ibid.

154 “you better be pretty careful”: Writer’s Digest, September 1991.

154 “I never did that with a book”: Stephen King Companion, p. 292.

155 “Everything I wrote for the next year fell apart like tissue paper”: Fangoria, p. 47.

155 “constantly wanting to push things past the edge”: Faces of Fear, p. 256.

155 “Don’t you know I’m the king of the fucking universe?”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

156 “There was something in that tar that she, that I, needed”: Ibid.

157 “If it would change your consciousness, I was all for it”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

157 “Then he decided to save himself”: Good Housekeeping, September 2001.

158 “Needless to say I was not successful in this”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

158 “that stuff eats you from the inside out”: Ibid.

160 “It’s like it wasn’t my voice”: Entertainment Weekly, September 27, 2002.

160 “I think it would take away a lot of the good stuff”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

160 “right away I knew it was a problem”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

160 “who have three or four martinis when they get in from work”: Ibid.

161 “He covered well”: USA Today, February 12, 2007.

161 “I wrapped the whole book around that spine”: Waldenbooks Magazine, November/December 1989.

162 “other than it’s not normal”: Castle Rock, August 1987.

163 “But now I feel like myself again, only with wrinkles”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

163 “it would have been a thirty-two-hour miniseries”: Talk of the Nation, February 9, 1999.

164 “gone into a total panic”: Fangoria, p. 48.

164 “I think the door has been finally opened for him”: Entertainment Weekly, September 27, 2002.

164 “had coaxed the best nonfiction writing of my life out of me”: Nightmares and Dreamscapes, p. 811.

166 “since I was sixteen without drinking or drugging”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

166 “you ended up paying with your soul”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

166 “maybe it just wasn’t a very good book”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

167 “I think you have to grow up here”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

CHAPTER TEN: IT GROWS ON YOU

168 “There was something very Snidely Whiplash about the whole thing”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

168 “I told her I was doing an experiment”: Ibid.

168 “because she has been chained in a certain kind of life”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

169 “you feel so grateful to have it return”: Amazon.com, September 1998.

169 “and find ways to revitalize it”: Age, November 25, 2006.

169 “you’ll miss the surprises, and some of them are wonderful”: Good Housekeeping, September 2001.

169 “I was taught that charity begins at home”: Boston Globe, November 22, 1991.

174 “I haven’t done to stay alive creatively”: USA Today, December 1992.

174 “if they’re all saying something’s a piece of shit, they’re right”: Writer’s Digest, September 1991.

174 “they have to do Carrie 2 or Children of the Corn VI”: Creepshows, p. 177.

175 “And I didn’t even know it got made”: USA Today, June 20, 2007.

175 “while they wonder what the fuck to do with them”: Hollywood’s Stephen King, p. 8.

176 “there’s just not enough life or enough time”: Talk of the Nation, February 9, 1999.

176 “With The Green Mile, I made twenty-five million”: Hollywood’s Stephen King, p. 7.

176 “if they bring a watermelon and a barrel for him to sit on”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

176 “who was going to be the lead dog”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

177 “He’s also taught me the legitimacy of ordinary things in fiction”: New Hampshire Sunday News, June 27, 1993.

179 “The tour felt like it never happened”: Mid-Life Confidential, p. 188.

180 “I’d rather not write at all”: Writer’s Digest, September 1991.

180 “I hardly slept at all”: America Online Chat, 1996.

180 “the stories are found articles and the story basically will tell itself”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

180 “if you’re really careful and lucky, you can get most of it”: Writers Dreaming, p. 137.

180 “brushing them off and looking at the carvings on them”: Writer’s Digest, September 1991.

180 “then I remember that I can’t, because of something in the story”: Ibid.

181 “I’m Stephen King, it doesn’t happen to me”: Ibid.

181 “more work than any two or three novels I’ve ever done in my life”: Fangoria, p. 93.

181 “apparently, he didn’t want to change a word”: Ibid., p. 99.

182 “I’ve played a lot of hick morons in my career”: Ibid., p. 98.

182 “No, you didn’t”: Amazon.com, March 2003.

183 “being put at the head of a float on National Whore’s Day”: Fangoria, p. 109.

183 “is like learning to talk after you’ve had a stroke”: Ibid., p. 110.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE GOLDEN YEARS

184 “when did Stephen King stop being scary?”: Entertainment Weekly, June 16, 1995.

184 “There are a lot of people who are dedicated to keeping the clubhouse white”: Entertainment Weekly, September 27, 2002.

184 “It made me feel like an impostor, like someone made a mistake”: New York Times, August 13, 2000.

185 “mom and dad went in to throw the pizza dough every day”: Times of London, March 10, 2007.

185 “I don’t think they were all that surprised”: Bangor Daily News, July 11, 2005.

185 “yet they were treated as part of the community”: Ibid.

186 “they’d prefer to have their privacy”: Bangor Daily News, August 23, 1994.

186 “Peltry is where I have to get some urgent work done”: Publishers Weekly, February 10, 1997.

186 “there’s such an emphasis on stripped-down stories, because people’s lives aren’t”: Ibid.

186 “are usually pretty minor tweaks”: Ibid.

187 “knowing I would be hung if it didn’t”: Stephen King from A to Z, p. 32.

187 “I want to stay dangerous, and that means taking risks”: America Online Chat, 1996.

188 “performing King Lear one night and Bus Stop the next”: Ibid.

188 “that cop killed them all”: Powells.com, October 2006.

189 “these guys have had no problems with vampires, demons, golems, and were-wolves in the past”: World of Fandom, September 1996.

189 “So I choose to believe”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

189 “I never said anything about signing them”: Hill house publishers.com, “Collecting Stephen King.”

190 “What if she also found a number of canceled checks?”: Ibid.

191 “killing off a major character right at the start!”: London Observer, August 9, 1998.

191 “like a buried body, they start to smell bad”: Omaha World Herald, June 29, 1998.

191 “which I haven’t used very much in my longer fiction”: Ibid.

192 “the writing works is very similar”: Amazon.com, March 2003.

192 “it’s always a little further along”: Interview by Stanley Wiater, September 1998.

192 “or to live confined in an emotional spiritual cage”: Sermon, “Holding Thee More Nearly,” September 23, 2007.

192 “After that, people encouraged me to go to seminary”: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, September 15, 2007.

193 “no gay girl kid was going to be able to do that”: Sermon, “The Magic of Thomas Potter,” September 30, 2007.

193 “is what I see out of the corners”: 60 Minutes, February 16, 1997.

194 “in the movie he was hit once but she wasn’t”: World of Fandom, September 1996.

195 “the way one puts down any savage animal that cannot stop biting”: Keynote address, annual meeting, Vermont Library Conference, May 26, 1999.

195 “ ‘That’s it for me, that book’s off the market’ ”: BBC, December 19, 1999.

195 “Because we always have”: Bangor Daily News, January 19, 2008.

195 “and see what they’re getting hit with up North”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

195 “If it stops, it’s over, forget it”: Province, April 22, 1997.

195 “at least you don’t have to linger in a burn ward”: Dennis Miller Live, April 3, 1998.

196 “except in the film at the beginning”: Ibid.

196 “something you wrote twenty-eight years ago was your best book”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

196 “different events, personalities, and things that you can flip together”: Writers Dreaming, p. 136.

197 “ ‘I’ve got the idea, now let me out of here’ ”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

198 “Let sleeping dogs lie, I say”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

CHAPTER TWELVE: MISERY

199 “I really enjoyed the process”: Talk of the Nation, February 9, 1999.

200 “generally that works pretty well”: Ibid.

200 “if you whine enough, you do”: Ibid.

200 “I’ve done most of the promotion that they’ve asked me to do”: Ibid.

200 “should have been changed to Story That Lasts a Century”: San Francisco Chronicle, February 12, 1999.

200 “A lot of people will not let me rest until I finish with Roland”: Ibid.

201 “it would be The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon”: Weekly Reader Writing magazine, October 2006.

202 “If he hit those rocks, he would have died”: Bangor Daily News, June 21, 1999.

202 “I thought, ‘Oh, boy, I’m in trouble here’ ”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

202 “I loved all your movies”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

202 “he was still talking and coherent”: Dateline, November 1, 1999.

203 “then it started up again, all different”: Good Housekeeping, September 2001.

203 “after they had intubated me and pumped up my lung”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

203 “Not today”: Dateline, November 1, 1999.

204 “with the exception of my head, which was only concussed”: Ibid.

204 “it was that I had to take them again”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

204 “I’m going to take it”: Ibid.

204 “it put chills in my heart”: Ibid.

205 “It’s almost funny”: On Writing, p. 256.

205 “I’d tell her I couldn’t and to let me stop, and she wouldn’t”: Dateline, November 1, 1999.

206 “I didn’t know if I knew how to do this anymore”: Ibid.

207 “so you just kind of let go”: Ibid.

207 “my brain began inventing pain just to get these painkillers”: Age, November 25, 2006.

207 “that was a very frightening place to be”: Fresh Air, October 10, 2000.

208 “you’re awake nights, you twitch, and then it’s gone”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK

209 “They all wanted to see my leg”: New York Times, August 13, 2000.

210 “because we can reduce each other to helpless laughter”: Tenebres.com, 2000.

210 “It’s just a question of trying to find the time”: Lilja’s Library, January 16, 2007.

210 “an idea of what this market is like now”: Publishers Weekly, March 14, 2000.

210 “but also in terms of length”: Ibid.

210 “it was a way of keeping things fresh”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

213 “It’s more like ‘I’m taking my leg to New York”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

213 “The death of a forty-three-year-old man can only be termed untimely”: CNN.com, September 25, 2000.

213 “Facts don’t bother a novelist”: Boston Globe, November 22, 1991.

213 “You’d rather do it than write about it”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

213 “Is this all you really have to say about the art and craft of writing?”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

213 “trying to teach women how to behave”: Entertainment Weekly, September 27, 2002.

214 “they take it more seriously”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

214 “because if I stop, I’ll never start again”: Guardian, September 18, 2004.

214 “Tabby keeps the monsters away”: 60 Minutes, February 16, 1997.

214 “Tabby’s not afraid of him, or anything”: Good Housekeeping, September 2001.

215 “and keeps us from knowing things”: Boston Globe, June 4, 2006.

215 “contemplate some god-awful things in my fiction”: Talk of the Nation, February 9, 1999.

215 “I can always rip it out later”: Feast of Fear, p. 99.

215 “what the consequences were when the man leaves”: Age, November 25, 2006.

215 “and then I would shoot him”: Publishers Weekly, February 10, 1997.

215 “the thought has crossed my mind”: Augusta Chronicle, October 20, 1998.

215 “he just bullies his way into what he wants like a freight train”: Writer’s Digest, June 2007.

216 “I ended my involvement immediately”: Onyx Reviews, May 2006.

216 “and that’s the end of it”: Ibid.

216 “what it means to be a man among other men”: CBS Morning Show, March 20, 2001.

216 “they would rather kill all of us than tell us the truth”: Hollywood’s Stephen King, p. 7.

217 “I found myself pulling back a bit”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

218 “Nothing did really”: Lilja’s Library, January 16, 2007.

218 “You see little flashes of their style”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

219 “there might have been an element of that involved”: All Things Considered, March 16, 2005.

219 “So to hell with it”: Portland Press Herald, June 4, 2006.

219 “who’s been following the Red Sox forever”: Ibid.

220 “I’ve become sort of a Red Sox mascot”: All Things Considered, March 16, 2005.

220 “there was no reason not to publish them as soon as possible”: Amazon.com, March 2003.

220 “these books are going to come in fairly rapid succession”: Ibid.

221 “has to come out some other way”: Talk of the Nation, NPR, February 9, 1999.

221 “I’d kick his body into the street and dance on it!”: Castle Rock, December 1987.

221 “I don’t need the money”: Entertainment Weekly, September 27, 2002.

222 “might be his last novel for the year”: Ibid.

222 “I would publish it”: Time, March 24, 2002.

222 “the idea that this guy was going to retire is a laugh”: Time, March 24, 2002.

222 “like my mind and body is trying to scare me back to work”: Age, November 25, 2006.

222 “so I tried to simplify it a little bit”: Amazon.com, March 2003.

222 “all they’re doing is remaking them at this point”: Boston Globe, June 4, 2006.

223 “And he’s a kindred spirit”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

224 “the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life”: Boston Globe, September 24, 2003.

224 “to a girl who’s not going to be Miss America”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

224 “there’s still a fair amount of resentment toward that”: Ibid.

224 “I was going to accept it and make my speech”: Age, November 25, 2006.

224 “and got rotten and infected the rest”: Ibid.

225 “The writing was the best part of the day”: Ibid.

225 “She knew I couldn’t argue”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

225 “when my mother died of cancer”: Age, November 25, 2006.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE END OF THE WHOLE MESS

226 “the pressure of being a famous guy’s kid”: New York Times, March 18, 2007.

226 “horror stories with few adverbs”: Ibid.

226 “and it’s the same comments”: Ibid.

227 “the fulfillment of a very intense childhood fantasy”: SDCC, July 27, 2007.

227 “out of me that I’m very proud of”: Onyx Review, June 2005.

227 “a nepotistic exercise and for you to suck”: Telegraph, May 21, 2006.

227 “not make any bread off his name”: Bangor Daily News, July 11, 2005.

227 “how he’d get his point across”: Ibid.

227 “which makes me work more”: “Interview with Susan Henderson,” MySpace.com, May 4, 2006.

228 “surrounded by all of these urns of ancient olive oil”: Ibid.

228 “flavor-of-the-month New York relationships”: New York Times, August 13, 2000.

228 “thank God he’s good”: Entertainment Weekly, June 24, 2005.

228 “Everything else is commentary”: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, September 15, 2007.

228 “I had to stop making jokes about it”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

228 “and she just laughs”: New York Times, August 13, 2000.

229 “those of us who are also people, created and beloved of God”: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, September 15, 2007.

229 “I tell stories through sermons”: Miami Herald, August 12, 2007.

229 “my basic standard of parenthood was nobody’s in jail”: Good Housekeeping, September 2001.

230 “which really was an instant book”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

230 “Don’t give me a pixie!”: New York Daily News, June 18, 2007.

230 “not to sound good inside that environment”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

213 “but sooner or later it ends”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

231 “That turned out to be Dooley in Lisey’s Story”: Ibid.

231 “it’s too good not to publish”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

232 “because I love this book”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

232 “That takes a generosity that isn’t common”: Writer’s Digest, June 2007.

232 “that no sane person expects to reach”: Boston Globe, June 4, 2006.

233 “that much time with people not looking at you”: Portland Press Herald, June 4, 2006.

233 “Paging Dr. Alzheimer”: Times of London podcast, January 28, 2007.

233 “that’s all that I wanted out of it”: New York Post, March 8, 2007.

233 “almost impossible to visualize on-screen”: Lilja’s Library, February 6, 2007.

234 “like not getting published. Sun-Herald (Australia), July 23, 2007.

234 “a case of my pen name doing its job”: Telegraph, October 20, 2007.

234 “it just didn’t work out that way”: New York Times, March 18, 2007.

234 “But he did it”: USA Today, February 12, 2007.

234 “that shows there’s hope for you”: Bangor Daily News, January 19, 2008.

234 “as a stand-in for himself”: USA Today, February 12, 2007.

234 “there’ll be some comparison”: Telegraph, October 20, 2007.

235 “I’d kill the whales to do this”: New York Times, June 4, 2007.

235 “more of a hobby than work”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

235 “I’m just a hood ornament on this band”: New York Times, June 4, 2007.

236 “good makeup won’t hide bad writing”: BBC, An Audience with Stephen King, November 12, 2006.

237 “ ‘Because we could!’ ”: Bangor Daily News, January 19, 2008.

238 “a skill I once had had slipped away”: Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, October 18, 2007.

238 “than I did on this one”: Ibid.

238 “to see the magazine reach a wider reading public”: Ibid.

239 “ ‘Oh, my God, this is wonderful!’ ”: Nightline, November 15, 2007.

239 “What if giant bugs started to fly into the glass?”: Ibid.

239 “the world that had been created in that story”: Ibid.

239 “the last thing I need in my books is another author”: Bangor Daily News, January 19, 2008.

239 “I got this image of two dead girls”: Ibid.

240 “David Baldacci and the born-again books?”: Paris Review, Fall 2006.

240 “would make anybody a healthy human being”: Weekly Reader Writing magazine, October 2006.

240 “that’s not easy to achieve all the time”: Lilja’s Library, January 16, 2007.

240 “It’s grow or die”: Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, October 18, 2007.

240 “more than just the box-step waltz”: A Good Read, Maine Public Television, August 2004.

241 “try different things and formats”: Time, November 23, 2007.

241 “and we’re big mouths too”: Rolling Stone, January 31, 2008.

241 “But I’m not crazy enough to do it again”: The Mist press conference, November 13, 2007.

241 “the most horrible, awful things that I can think about”: Highway Patrolman, July 1987.

242 “that’ll kick your ass every time”: The Mist press conference, November 13, 2007.

242 “it’s the teaspoon against the sea”: Portland Press Herald, June 4, 2006.

242 “on every gallon of gas you buy”: UMO commencement address, May 7, 2005.

242 “every time I sit down at a typewriter”: Time, October 6, 1986.

242 “He writes like old people fuck”: Guardian, September 14, 2000.

243 “That’s the bottom line”: Hollywood’s Stephen King, p. 5.

243 “it’s time to stop”: Castle Rock, April 1989.