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It's Not The Pain I'm Afraid Of; I Know About The Pain. What I'm Afraid Of Is The End Of This Small, Sweet Dream.
-Stephen King
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It's Not The Pain

Stephen King
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It's Not The Pain I'm Afraid Of; I Know About The Pain. What I'm Afraid Of Is The End Of This Small, Sweet Dream.

Understanding the Quote: "it's not the pain i'm afraid of; i know about the pain...."

This quote by Stephen King reflects deeply on the theme of dream. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Dream, Sweet, Pain, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Stephen King interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Stephen King

Stephen King is celebrated for insightful thoughts on dream and sweet. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Dream
Sweet
Pain
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Writing
Sisterhood
...knowing That To Be A Librarian Was To Come As Close As Any Human Being Can To Sitting In The Peak-seat Of Eternity's Engine.
Knowing
Library
Sitting
Description Begins In The Writer’s Imagination, But Should Finish In The Reader’s.
Kings
Writing
Imagination
I Don't Have Anything Against Either Of The Dead Movies, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, None Of Those Movies. If It Scares Somebody, I Think That It Is Serving A Valid Purpose. It Is Doing What The Filmmaker Intended. But, It Is Not Something That You Hand To Kids.
Kids
Thinking
Texas
It's The Pool Where We All Go Down To Drink, To Swim, To Catch A Little Fish From The Edge Of The Shore; It's Also The Pool Where Some Hardy Souls Go Out In Their Flimsy Wooden Boats After The Big Ones. It Is The Pool Of Life, The Cup Of Imagination, And She Has An Idea That Different People See Different Versions Of It, But With Two Things Ever In Common: It's Always About A Mile Deep In The Fairy Forest, And It's Always Sad. Because Imagination Isn't The Only Thing This Place Is About.
Ideas
Two
People
She Knew With Suddeness And Ease That This Moment Would Be With Her Always, Within Hand's Reach Of Memory. She Doubted If They All Sensed It - They Had Seen The World - But Even George Was Silent For A Minute As They Looked, And The Scene, The Smell, Even The Sound Of The Band Playing A Faintly Recognisable Movie Theme, Was Locked Forever In Her, And She Was At Peace.
Memories
Hands
Smell
Parenting Is The Greatest Of Hum-a-few-bars-and-i'll-fake-it Skills.
Skills
Fake
Bars
I Don't Really Map Anything Out. I Just Let It Happen [while Writing]. But Once It Happens, It's Always There. If It's Laid, It's Played. If I Get To Page 300 And It's Not Working, I Junk It.
Writing
Junk
Maps
If You Say, Well, Ok, I Don't Believe In God. There's No Evidence Of God, Then You're Missing The Stars In The Sky And You're Missing The Sunrises And Sunsets And You're Missing The Fact That Bees Pollinate All These Crops And Keep Us Alive And The Way That Everything Seems To Work Together. Everything Is Sort Of Built In A Way That To Me Suggests Intelligent Design.
Stars
Believe
Sunset
As A Species We're Fundamentally Insane.
Insane
Species
When Facts Speak, The Wise Man Listens.
Wise
Men
Facts
We All Do What We Can, And It Has To Be Good Enough, And If It Isn't Good Enough, It Has To Do.
Good Enough
Enough
Be Good
It Always Comes Down To Just Two Choices. Get Busy Living, Or Get Busy Dying.
Life
Death
Two
There Is No Gain Without Risk, Perhaps No Risk Without Love.
Risk
Gains
Without Love
The Man In Black Travels With Your Soul In His Pocket.
Halloween
Men
Soul
There Is No Such Thing As A Happy Ending. I Never Met A Single One To Equal "once Upon A Time.
Once Upon A Time
Happy Endings
Mets
Kindle, Isn’t It?” The Waitress Asked. “i Got One For Christmas, And I Love It. I’m Reading My Way Through All Of Jodi Picoult’s Books.” “oh, Probably Not All Of Them,” Wesley Said. “huh? Why Not?” “she’s Probably Got Another One Done Already. That’s All I Meant.” “and James Patterson’s Probably Written One Since He Got Up This Morning!” She Said, And Went Off Chortling.
Morning
Book
Reading
Write What You Like, Then Imbue It With Life And Make It Unique By Blending In Your Own Personal Knowledge Of Life, Friendship, Relationships, Sex, And Work. Especially Work. People Love To Read About Work. God Knows Why, But They Do.
Sex
Work
Writing
I Don't Make Movies. I Don't Feel That I Have To Have Artistic Control. Part Of This Comes From The Fact That The Book Lives On No Matter What Hollywood Does To Your Novel In Terms Of A Film. Now, You Try To Be Careful Who You Allow To Do Your Film Because Nobody Wants Their Novel To Become A Turkey Movie. But, On The Other Hand, It Is A Crapshot Anyway, Because Even The Best People Can Make A Bad Film.
Book
Hands
Turkeys
We Either Learn To Accept Or We End Up Writing Letters Home With Crayons.
Home
Writing
Letters
Talent Renders The Whole Idea Of Rehearsal Meaningless; When You Find Something At Which You Are Talented, You Do It (whatever It Is) Until Your Fingers Bleed Or Your Eyes Are Ready To Fall Out Of Your Head. Even When No One Is Listening (or Reading Or Watching), Every Outing Is A Bravura Performance, Because You As The Creator Are Happy. Perhaps Even Ecstatic.
Fall
Reading
Eye
The Wind Makes You Ache Is Some Place That Is Deeper Than Your Bones. It May Be That It Touches Something Old In The Human Soul, A Chord Of Race Memory That Says Migrate Or Die - Migrate Or Die.
Memories
Race
Wind
Writing Is Like A Little Hole In Reality That You Can Go Through And You Can Get Out And You Can Be Someplace Else For A While.
Writing
Reality
Littles
What A Paragon Of Virtue You Are, Gunslinger!" The Man In Black Laughed.
Men
Black
Virtue
Not Writing Would Be Like Going The Rest Of Your Life Without Having Dreams.
Dream
Writing
Would Be
He Did It (listened) As The World's Most Charming And Magnetic People Do, Always Asking The Right Question At The Right Time, Never Fidgeting Or Taking His Eyes From The Speaker's Face, Making The Other Guy Feel Like The Most Knowledgeable, Brilliant, And Intellectually Savvy Person On The Planet.
Eye
People
Guy
Directing Teenage Actors Is Like Juggling Jars Of Nitro-glycerine: Exhilarating And Dangerous.
Teenage
Actors
Jars
I Have Two Amazing Things In My Life: I'm Pain-free And I'm Debt-free.
Pain
Debt Free
Two
I’ve Always Said To People, "i Don’t Care What You Call Me As Long As The Checks Don’t Bounce And The Family Gets Fed." But I Never Saw Myself That Way. I Just Saw Myself As A Novelist.
Novelists
Saws
The Late Afternoon Sunlight, Warm As Oil, Sweet As Childhood.
Sweet
Oil
Childhood
I'm Most Afraid Of Losing My Mind. You Lose Your Identity, Your Sense Of Who You Are, Where You Are.
Mind
Identity
Losing
It's A Hard Life If You Don't Weaken.
Unhappy
Hard Life
Ifs
Acknowledge Your Good Fortune By Sharing It.
Fortune
Acknowledge
Good Fortune
No One Ever Does Live Happily Ever After, But We Leave The Children To Find That Out For Themselves.
Children
Doe
Ever After
Ninety-five Percent Of People Who Walk The Earth Are Simply Inert. One Percent Are Saints, And One Percent Are Assholes. The Other Three Percent Are People Who Do What They Say They Can Do.
People
Saint
Three
The Good Folks Mostly Win, Courage Usually Triumphs Over Fear, The Family Dog Hardly Ever Contracts Rabies: These Are Things I Knew At Twenty-five, And Things I Still Know Now, At The Age Of 25 X 2. But I Know Something Else As Well: There's A Place In Most Of Us Where The Rain Is Pretty Much Constant, The Shadows Are Always Long, And The Woods Are Full Of Monsters. It Is Good To Have A Voice In Which The Terrors Of Such A Place Can Be Articulated And Its Geography Partially Described, Without Denying The Sunshine And Clarity That Fill So Much Of Our Ordinary Lives. (viii)
Dog
Rain
Sunshine
There Are A Great Many Ways To Commit Suicide You Know.
Suicide
Way
Great Men
The First Draft Of A Book—even A Long One—should Take No More Than Three Months, The Length Of A Season.
Book
Long
Three
The Stories We Hear In Our Childhood Are The Ones We Remember All Our Lives.
Childhood
Stories
Remember
Don't Let The Door Hitcha Where The Good Lord Splitcha.
Doors
Lord
True Love Always Happens In A Flash.
Love
Flash
Happens
Where You Think I’m Goan?’ ‘well,’ Eddie Said, ‘what Was Behind Door Number One Wasn’t So Hot, And What Was Behind Door Number Two Was Even Worse, So Now, Instead Of Quitting Like Sane People, We’re Going To Go Right On Ahead And Check Out Door Number Three. The Way Things Have Been Going, I Think It’s Likely To Be Something Like Godzilla Or Ghidra The Three-headed Monster, But I’m An Optimist. I’m Still Hoping For The Stainless Steel Cookware.
Thinking
Numbers
Doors
Some Part Of Me Knew From The First That What I Wanted Was Not Reality But Myth.
Reality
Firsts
Myth
The World Was The Overlook Hotel, Where The Party Never Ended. Where The Dead Were Alive Forever.
Party
Forever
Alive
Money Means I Can Support My Family And Still Do What I Love. Not Very Many People Can Say That In This World, And Not Many Writers Can Say That.
Mean
People
Support
No One Likes To See A Government Folder With His Name On It.
Names
Government
Likes
I Think Most Of Us Can Remember From Our Own Childhood, Just In The Disney Cartoons, Things That Frightened Us Profoundly. For Me It Was Bambi, The Scene When The Forest Was On Fire. That Was Something I Had Nightmares About. I Can't Imagine Being A Little Kid Of Eight And Seeing Night Of The Living Dead With Living Corpses Eating The Flesh Of Living People.
Kids
Night
Thinking
I Love You Too Much To Lie To You, Lisey. I Love You With All That Passes For My Heart. I Suspect That Kind Of All-out Love Becomes A Burden To A Woman In Time, But It's The Only Kind I Have To Give. I Think We're Going To Be Quite A Wealthy Couple In Terms Of Money, But I'll Almost Certainly Be An Emotional Pauper All My Life. I've Got The Money Coming, But As For The Rest I've Got Just Enough For You, And I Won't Ever Dirty Or Dilute It With Lies. Not With The Words I Say, Not With The Ones I Hold Back.
Couple
Lying
Dirty
Only Children Tell The Whole Truth, You Know. That's What Makes Them Children.
Children
Only Child
Whole
Pride, That Invisible Bone That Keeps The Neck Stiff.
Pride
Necks
Bones
Death, But Not For You, Gunslinger. Never For You. You Darkle. You Tinct. May I Be Brutally Frank? You Go On.
Goes On
May
Gunslinger
The Poets Continually And Sometimes Wilfully Mistake Love. Love Is The Old Slaughterer.
Mistake
Love Is
Sometimes
Pain Is The Biggest Power Of Love.
Pain
Power Of Love
He Could Feel The Pores Of His Body Open Like A Million Mouths And Slurp The Water In Like A Sponge.
Water
Mouths
Body
Whatever Came To Mind, Whatever Came To Hand, I Would Read.
Hands
Mind
I Believe In Evil, But All My Life I've Gone Back And Forth About Whether Or Not There's An Outside Evil, Whether Or Not There's A Force In The World That Really Wants To Destroy Us, From The Inside Out, Individually And Collectively.
Believe
Evil
Gone
Your Hair Is Winter Fire January Embers My Heart Burns There, Too.
Heart
Winter
Fire
The Bad Ideas Kind Of Just Drop Out Of The Mix. You Forget About Them. The Good Ones Stick Around.
Ideas
Sticks
Kind
I’m So Afraid That All I Can Reach Will Lead Me To All I Dare Not See.
Dare
Leading Me
I Can
Make-up Covers A Multitude Of Sins.
Sin
Multitudes
You Can't Polish A Turd.
Turds
Polish
It Didn´t Occur To Me Until Later That There´s Another Truth, Very Simple: Greed In A Good Cause Is Still Greed.
Simple
Greed
Causes
We Never Know Which Lives We Influence, Or When, Or Why. Not Until The Future Eats The Present, Anyway. We Know When It's Too Late.
Too Late
Why Not
Influence
I'm Seen As Somebody Who Writes For Adults Because I'm An Older Man Myself. Some Of Them Find Me, And A Lot Of Them Don't.
Writing
Men
Adults
Good Description Is A Learned Skill, One Of The Prime Reasons Why You Cannot Succeed Unless You Read A Lot And Write A Lot. It’s Not Just A Question Of How-to, You See; It’s Also A Question Of How Much To. Reading Will Help You Answer How Much, And Only Reams Of Writing Will Help You With The How. You Can Learn Only By Doing.
Reading
Writing
Skills
I Stood For Almost An Hour In A Line Of Shuffling, Bitter - Eyed Late Mailers (christmas Is Such A Carefree, Low - Pressure Time - That's One Of The Things I Love About It).
Things I Love
Lines
Pressure
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