Quotes from book
The Stand

Stephen King

The Stand is a postapocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It expands upon the scenario of his earlier short story "Night Surf", and presents a detailed vision of the total breakdown of society after the accidental release of a strain of influenza that had been modified for biological warfare causes an apocalyptic pandemic, killing off over 99% of the world's population. Published in 1978, The Stand is the fourth and longest novel King published.

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“If we don't have each other, we go crazy with loneliness. When we do, we go crazy with togetherness.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

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“There are all sorts of dream interpretations, Freud's being the most notorious, but I have always believed they served a simple eliminatory function, and not much more - that dreams are the psyche's way of taking a good dump every now and then.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

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“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want for nothing. He makes me lie down in the green pastures. He greases up my head with oil. He gives me kung-fu in the face of my enemies. Amen”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

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“There’s always a choice. That’s God’s way, always will be. Your will is still free. Do as you will. There’s no set of leg-irons on you. But… this is what God wants of you.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

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“Who gets to be best-liked in any community? Who is the most trusted? Why, the man who does the dirty job, of course, and does it with a smile. The man who does the job you couldn't bring yourself to do.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

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“You couldn't not like someone who liked the guitar.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

Stephen King photo

“The thought process can never be complete without articulation.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

Stephen King photo

“Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Glen Bateman
The Stand (1978)

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“I am too old for adventure," the Judge said, putting his clippers away, "but I hope I am not too old to do what I feel is right. There is an old woman out there someplace who has probably gone to a miserable death because she felt it was right. Prompted by religious mania, I have no doubt. But people who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand (1978), p. 810

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“Afterward Larry felt as if he had been through a long pillow-fight in which all the pillows had been treated with a low-grade poison gas.”

Stephen King book The Stand

The Stand (1978)

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“Starkey put his fingers under the man's chin and pushed his head back. As he did so, the man's eyeballs fell back into his head with a meaty little thud. The words on the sign had been written in red Magic Marker. NOW YOU KNOW IT WORKS, the sign said, ANY QUESTIONS?”

Stephen King book The Stand

The Stand (1978)

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“He had a massive stroke. He died with his tie on. Do you think that could be our generation's equivalent of that old saying about dying with your boots on?”

Stephen King book The Stand

Rita Blakemoor
The Stand (1978)

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“There are a great many ways to commit suicide you know.”

Stephen King book The Stand

The Stand (Uncut), Chapter 55 p. 799
The Stand (1978)

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“You couldn't get hold of the things you'd done and turn them right again. Such a power might be given to the gods, but it was not given to women and men, and that was probably a good thing. Had it been otherwise, people would probably die of old age still trying to rewrite their teens.”

Stephen King book The Stand

The Stand (1978)

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“When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "one word at a time."”

Stephen King book The Stand

The Stand (Uncut), Preface (part 2)
The Stand (1978)

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“Did you know that Dairy Queen ice cream is mostly bubbles?”

Stephen King book The Stand

Frannie
The Stand (1978)

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“M-O-O-N, that spells ILLEGAL!”

Stephen King book The Stand

Tom Cullen
The Stand (1978)

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“It was things like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he thought, that made you believe the world was maybe just as well off destroyed.”

Stephen King book The Stand

The Stand (Uncut), Chapter 61 p. 934
The Stand (1978)