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
In polite society, we call our obsessions hobbies.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that what we passionately pursue is often labeled as a hobby in social contexts. It implies a deeper reflection on society's perception of interests and obsessions.
Stephen King's quote highlights the disparity between our true passions and how society chooses to classify them. In polite society, where norms dictate acceptable behavior, intense interests, often perceived as obsessions, are downplayed and referred to as hobbies to fit social expectations. This observation provokes thought about societal judgment and the truth behind our fervent pursuits, encouraging us to embrace what we love regardless of labels.
Themes
ObsessionHobbiesSocietyPassionInterests
In practice
Example use cases
In a social gathering where people are discussing their interests.
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
I would never say I was an icon, but so many people have said I am, so I suppose I am. I mean, I can't not be what everyone says I am. But I don't feel like an icon.
Jane GoodallRead
The modern mind always tends to reduce the greater to the lesser rather than seeing the lesser as reflecting the greater.
Peter KreeftRead
[The Bill of Rights is] designed to protect individuals and minorities against the tyranny of the majority, but it's also designed to protect the people against bureaucracy, against the government.
Laurence TribeRead
You might say, 'Can't we have a more human Christianity, without the cross, without Jesus, without stripping ourselves?' In this way we'd become pastry-shop Christians, like a pretty cake and nice sweet things. Pretty, but not true Christians.
Pope FrancisRead
The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
But I know what darkness is, it accumulates, thickens, then suddenly bursts and drowns everything.
Samuel BeckettRead