Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
He was a clot looking for a place to happen, a splinter of bone hunting a soft organ to puncture, a lonely lunatic cell looking for a mate - they would set up housekeeping and raise themselves a cozy little malignant tumor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote metaphorically describes a person filled with chaotic energy seeking to create disruption or harm in a world that may seem passive.
In this quote, Stephen King uses vivid imagery to illustrate a character's unsettling nature. The terms 'clot,' 'splinter of bone,' and 'malignant tumor' signify an inherent desire for destruction or disturbance, suggesting that such individuals thrive on chaos and are perpetually seeking out opportunities to inflict their madness or discontent upon others. It reflects on the darker sides of human nature and the potential for harmful relationships fueled by inner turmoil.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a psychology class, when discussing the impact of toxic relationships.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
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So the single most vital step on your journey towards enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.