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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of human existence involves solitary contemplation regardless of social interactions.
In this quote, Stephen King emphasizes the solitary nature of thought and the inevitability of being alone with one's own reflections. Even when surrounded by others, one's mind is ultimately an isolated entity, engaging in a constant dialogue that shapes our understanding of life and self. The reference to 'putting in miles in his brain' illustrates the extensive journey of thought that can occur internally, mirroring the physical journeys that one takes.
Themes
ThinkingIsolationSolitudeContemplationLoneliness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be discussed in a philosophy class to highlight the nature of thought and existence.
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
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
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 believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men of our time.
Albert EinsteinRead
It seems entirely possible to me that horrible things can be going on without us becoming horrible people.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! And transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation.
Clare Of AssisiRead
So the day became one of waiting, which was, he knew, a sin: moments were to be experienced; waiting was a sin against both the time that was still to come and the moments one was currently disregarding.
Neil GaimanRead
It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.
Albert EinsteinRead
I really don't want to portray the Islamists as simply evil, the way it's often done in the west.
Orhan PamukRead