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.
Stephen KingRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote evokes feelings of fear and anxiety associated with the unknown.
In this quote, Stephen King captures a sense of foreboding and paranoia. The mention of 'tommyknockers' symbolizes unseen forces or fears that haunt a person, creating an atmosphere of dread and uncertainty about what lies ahead. It reflects the human experience of confronting terrifying, often irrational fears that can trap us in a state of inaction.
Themes
FearUnknownAnxietyParanoiaDread
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about facing your fears, you might quote this line to illustrate the concept of anxiety about the unknown.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
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.
Stephen KingRead
At nineteen, it seems to me, one has a right to be arrogant; time has usually not begun its stealthy and rotten subtractions. It takes away your hair and your jump-shot, according to a popular country song, but in truth it takes away a lot more than that.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
I've always felt that the real horror is next door to us, that the scariest monsters are our neighbors.
George A. RomeroRead
They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak.
James Russell LowellRead
Analyze yourself. All emotions are reflected in the body and mind. Envy and fear cause the face to pale, love makes it glow.
Paramahansa YoganandaRead
Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.
Henry MillerRead
Fear unchecked grows exponentially. Love poured forth has the power to remove it. Thus is the power of God in our lives
Marianne WilliamsonRead
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.
Cormac MccarthyRead