Stephen King

The ICE… is gonna BREAK!

"Bless me"? You know what God did for me? He threw an 18-wheel truck at me! Bounced me into nowhere for five years! When I woke up, my-my-my girl was gone, my job was gone, my legs are just about useless. Bless me? God's been a real sport to me!

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting, on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door, and his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, and the lamp light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor, and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted... nevermore.

I keep thinking about a line from a book. It's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"; the last thing I gave my class to read before... the accident. Ichabod Crane disappears.; the line goes: "As he was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled their head about him anymore."

That's what I want. It's what I want.

Your daughter's screaming. The house is burning. Your daughter's in the house. It's not too late.

If you could go back in time to Germany, before Hitler came to power, knowing what you know now, would you kill him?

I've been tutoring this boy named Stuart. In the vision, I saw him drown. But that's not the point. In the vision, something was missing.

It was like... a blank spot, a dead zone.

His father wanted him to play hockey. I talked him out of it. The boy's alive.

I can change it.

Your father says there's something wrong with you, he wants me to bring you out of your shell. I don't know what to do.

Next I want you to read 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', you'll love it, this school teacher finds himself being chased by a headless demon.

I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?

It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of your life, like busboys in a restaurant.

Although I hadn't seen him in more than ten years, I know I'll miss him forever.

I wondered how Teddy could care so much for his dad, who practically killed him. And I couldn't give a shit about my own dad, who hadn't laid a hand on me since I was three! And that was for eating the bleach under the sink.

At the beginning of the school year, Vern had buried a quart jar of pennies underneath his house. He drew a treasure map so he could find them again. A week later, his mom cleaned out his room and threw away the map. Vern had been trying to find those pennies for nine months. Nine months, man. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The kid wasn't sick. The kid wasn't sleeping. The kid was dead.

Vern didn't just mean being off limits inside the junkyard, or fudging on our folks, or going on a hike up the railroad to Harlow. He meant those things, but it seems to me now it was more and that we all knew it. Everything was there and around us. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand.

I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only twelve hundred and eighty-one people. But to me, it was the whole world.

The train had knocked Ray Brower out of his Keds the same way it had knocked the life out of his body.

As time went on, we saw less and less of Teddy and Vern until, eventually, they became just two more faces in the halls. Happens sometimes, friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant. I heard that Vern got married out of high school, had four kids, and is now the forklift operator at the Arseno Lumberyard. Teddy tried several times to get into the Army, but his eyes and his ear kept him out. Last I heard, he had spent some time in jail and was now doing odd jobs around Castle Rock.

Chris did get out. He enrolled in the college courses with me and, although, it was hard, he gutted it out like he always did. He went on to college and, eventually, became a lawyer. Last week, he entered a fast food restaurant. Just ahead of him, two men got into an argument. One of them pulled a knife. Chris, who had always made the best peace, tried to break it up. He was stabbed in the throat. He died almost instantly.

The freight woke up the other guys and it was on the tip of my tongue to tell them about the deer. But I didn't. That was the one thing I kept to myself. I've never spoken or written about it until just now.

Around this time, Charlie and Billy were playing "Mailbox Baseball" with Ace and Eyeball.

In April, my older brother Dennis had been killed in a jeep accident. Four months had passed but my parents still hadn't been able to put the pieces back together again.

Hi, I've got an appointment with Mr. Ullman. My name is Jack Torrance.

Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me, and it will then take me time to get back to where I was. Understand?

Fine. Then we're going to make a new rule. Whenever I'm in here and you hear me typing

or whether you don't hear me typing, whatever the fuck you hear me doing, when I'm in here, that means that I am working, that means don't come in. Now, do you think you can handle that?

Good. Now why don't you start right now and get the fuck out of here? Hm?

You can't remember... Maybe it was about... Danny? Maybe it was about him. I think we should discuss Danny. I think we should discuss what should be done with him. What should be done with him?

Have you ever had a single moment's thought about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought, for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the Overlook Hotel until May the first. Does it matter to you at all that the owners have placed their complete confidence and "trust" in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a "contract," in which I have accepted that responsibility? Do you have the slightest idea what a "moral and ethical principal" is? Do you? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future, if I were to fail to live up to my responsibilities? Has it ever occurred to you? Has it?

Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in.

I like you, Lloyd. I always liked you. You were always the best of them. Best goddamned bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine. Or Portland, Oregon, for that matter.

You got a big surprise coming to you. You're not going anywhere! Go check out the Snow Cat and the radio and you'll see what I mean. Go check it out. Go! Go check it out! Go check it out!

I fell in love with it right away. When I came up here from my interview, it was as though I had been here before. I mean, we all have moments of déjà vu, but this was ridiculous. It was almost as though I knew what was going to be around every corner.

I just happen to have two 20s and two 10s right here in my wallet. I was afraid they were going to be there until next April. So here's what: you slip me a bottle of bourbon, a little glass and some ice. You can do that, can't you? You're not too busy, are you?

I never laid a hand on him, goddamn it. I didn't. I wouldn't touch one hair on his goddamn little head. I love the little son of a bitch! I'd do anything for him. Any fucking thing for him. But that bitch… as long as I live she will never let me forget what happened.

I did hurt him once, okay? Completely unintentional. Could've happened to anybody. And it was THREE GODDAMN YEARS AGO! The little fucker had thrown all my papers all over the floor! All I tried to do was pull him up!

A momentary loss of muscular coordination. I mean, a few extra foot-pounds of energy, per second, per second.

We each owe a death - there are no exceptions - but, oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long.

I think Mr. Jingles happened by accident. I think when we electrocuted Del, and it all went so badly... well, John can feel that you know... and I think a part of... whatever magic was inside of him just lept through my tiny friend here. As for me, John had to give me a part of himself; a gift the way he saw it, so that I could see for myself what Wild Billy had done. When John did that; when he took my hand, a part of the power that worked through him spilled into me.

That's as good a word as any. He infected us both, didn't he, Mr. Jingles? With life. I'm a hundred and eight years old, Elaine. I was forty-four the year that John Coffey walked the Green Mile. You mustn't blame John. He couldn't help what happened to him... he was just a force of nature. Oh I've lived to see some amazing things Elly. Another century come to past, but I've... I've had to see my friends and loved ones die off through the years... Hal and Melinda... Brutus Howell... my wife... my boy. And you Elaine... you'll die too, and my curse is knowing that I'll be there to see it. It's my attonement you see; it's my punishment, for letting John Coffey ride the lightning; for killing a miracle of God. You'll be gone like all the others. I'll have to stay. Oh, I'll die eventually, that I'm sure. I have no illusions of immortality, but I will wished for death... long before death finds me. In truth, I wish for it already.

I guess sometimes the past just catches up with you, whether you want it to or not.

They usually call death row the Last Mile, but we called ours the Green Mile, because the floor was the color of faded limes. We had the electric chair then. Old Sparky, we called it. I've lived a lot of years, Ellie, but 1935 takes the prize. That was the year I had the worst urinary infection of my life. That was also the year of John Coffey and the two dead girls.

You tell God the Father it was a kindness you done. I know you hurtin' and worryin', I can feel it on you, but you oughta quit on it now. Because I want it over and done. I do. I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we's coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time. Can you understand?

He kill them wi' their love. Wi' their love fo' each other. That's how it is, every day, all over the world.

Please boss, don't put that thing over my face, don't put me in the dark. I's afraid of the dark.

You know, I fell asleep this afternoon and had me a dream. I dreamed about Del's mouse.

I dreamed he got down to that place Boss Howell talked about, that Mouseville place. I dreamed there was kids, and how they laughed at his tricks! My! I dreamed those two little blonde-headed girls were there. They 'us laughing, too. I put my arms around 'em and sat 'em on my knees, and there 'us no blood comin' outta their hair and they 'us fine. We all watch Mr. Jingles roll that spool, and how we did laugh. Fit to bust, we was.