Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King

by Lisa Rogak

  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”: MidLife 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 werewolves 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, Februar
y 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 standin 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.