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
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests a pursuit or chase that signifies deeper themes of conflict and the human experience.
The quote illustrates a dynamic of pursuit and flight, where the 'man in black' symbolizes an elusive or shadowy figure, while the 'gunslinger' represents determination and the quest for resolution. This chase across the desert can be interpreted as a metaphor for the struggles and challenges one faces in life, highlighting themes of persistence, the duality of good and evil, and the inherent conflicts that drive narratives both in literature and reality.
Themes
PursuitConflictStruggleJourneyDetermination
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to inspire students in a creative writing workshop to explore themes of conflict in their narratives.
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
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.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
Ajahn ChahRead
It takes a checkbook to change the world
Mother TeresaRead
There is no harm in patience, and no profit in lamentation. Death is easier to bear (than) that which precedes it, and more severe than that which comes after it. Remember the death of the Apostle of God, and your sorrow will be lessened.
Abu BakrRead
All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny.
Aldous HuxleyRead
Everyone who observes himself doubting observes a truth, and about that which he observes he is certain; therefore he is certain about a truth. Everyone therefore who doubts whether truth exists has in himself a truth on which not to doubt.... Hence one who can doubt at all ought not to doubt the existence of truth.
Saint AugustineRead
The experience of every-day life fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, with the result that peace is maintained.
Emma GoldmanRead