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.
How much courage does it take to fire up your tractor and plow under a crop you spent six or seven years growing? How much courage to go on and do that after you've spent all that time finding out how to prepare the soil and when to plant and how much to water and when to reap? How much to just say, "I have to quit these peas. Peas are no good for me, I better try corn or beans.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the courage required to make significant changes in life, especially after investing considerable time and effort into something that may not be beneficial.
Stephen King's quote reflects the theme of courage in the face of difficult decisions. It highlights the emotional and psychological struggle involved in discarding years of hard work invested in a particular endeavor, symbolized by the decision to abandon a crop. The quote suggests that true courage lies not only in perseverance but also in the willingness to recognize what is no longer beneficial and to embrace change, even when it is painful.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about personal growth, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of making tough decisions.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
I have lived my life according to this principle: If I'm afraid of it, then I must do it.
Men walk this tightrope where any sign of weakness illicits shame, and so they're afraid to make themselves vulnerable for fear of looking weak.
I heard the bullets whistle-- and believe me, there is something charming in the sound.
We had set out in a rain of flowers to seek the death of heroes. The war was our dream of greatness, power and glory. It was a man's work, a duel on the fields whose flowers would be stained with blood. There is no lovelier death in the world... Anything rather than stay at home, anything to make one with the rest.
If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and lose it quickly.
It is not in violence and crime that our greatest danger lies. These evils are so perfectly apparent that they very quickly arouse the moral power of the people for their suppression. A far more serious danger lurks in the shirking of those responsibilities of citizenship, where the evil may not be so noticeable but is more insidious and likely to be more devastating.