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When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.

Stephen King

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Stephen King
Age: 77
Born: 1947
Born: September 21
Actor
Author
Columnist
Director
Film Director
Journalist
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Teacher
Television Producer
Writer
Portland
Maine
Stephen Edwin King
Richard Bachman
John Swithen
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Bones
Revising
Done
Essentials
Ounce
Must
Cutting
Rewrite
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Story
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Every
Stories
Excess
Always
Littles
Fats
Murdering

More quotes by Stephen King

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There's a saying - Write what you know. It's bad advice if you take it as an unbreakable rule, but good advice if you use it as a foundation.
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She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong. She hurt all the time.
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You can't be careful on a skateboard.
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Poe was the first writer to write about main characters who were bad guys or who were mad guys, and those are some of my favorite stories.
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I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 - Jesus, did you?
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Writing is like being in a dream state or under self-directed hypnosis. It induces a state of recall that - while not perfect - is pretty spooky.
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True sorrow is as rare as true love.
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Art should be a place of hope.
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I felt lonely and content at the same time. I believe that is a rare kind of happiness.
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Like anything else that happens on its own, the act of writing is beyond currency. Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.
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Until that afternoon in October four years ago, I hadn't known dogs could scream.
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I believe most people are essentially good. I know that I am. It's you I'm not entirely sure of.
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What you don’t know, you can’t tell. Or made to tell.
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Roland had taught him that self-deception was nothing but pride in disguise, an indulgence to be denied.
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Do you believe in an afterlife? the gunslinger asked him as Brown dropped three ears of hot corn onto his plate. Brown nodded. I think this is it.
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Put an egg in your shoe and beat it, make like a tree and leave, imitate an amoeba and split.
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It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters.
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I don't want to just mess with your head. I want to mess with your life.... I want you to miss appointments, burn dinner, skip your homework. I want you to tell your wife to take that moonlight stroll on the beach at Waikiki with the resort tennis pro while you read a few more chapters.
Stephen King
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When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'one word at a time.'
Stephen King
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Talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work and study a constant process of honing. Talent is a dull knife that will cut nothing unless it is wielded with great force.
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