The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand

by Christopher Golden

Bad things were good and unifying,

Whenever he walked up or down the stairs, Talik liked to imagine he was Indiana Jones on an adventure through a booby-trapped temple.

Classic kid thinking

Never count your blessings. It only reminds you of what will be subtracted.

Nothing reveals the uselessness of words quite like the presence of Death,

Every lie tasted sour.

When pain and grief pile on top of more pain and grief, sometimes the only coping mechanism left is to welcome a deep sense of numbness and concentrate on breathing, on surviving one more minute even if we’re not sure why we want to stay alive.

“Well. It ain’t a campfire, but I reckon sitting around a glowing box with friends and letting it tell us stories is about the same. ’Cept of course, this way we don’t hear the same story about that time Derek got drunk with Sissy Heiser from over in Flatsbury and she let him do butt stuff.” “She did,” said Derek. “Ain’t no lie.”

Lol

They was just born in the wrong fucking place at the wrong fucking time.

Theme for the stand?

Sometimes hope was just a life raft in the middle of a hurricane, but it was better than drowning.

But he also hoped he’d be strong enough to make his stand if he did.

“If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy” —Claude McKay, “If We Must Die”

“Sometimes you have to get off your knees and do something,” Abagail said.

Harry Bosch....get off your ass and start knocking on doors

“Iffen you’re fighting to be free every time you walk out the door, you ain’t promised to return,” Abagail said.

cellar. “Before I’ll be a slave, you’ll bury me in my grave.

One day she knew she’d have to face him at the height of his power, and her faith would not be enough.

Doubt?? lack of faith.

Logic was a useless weapon when belief was held in higher regard than fact. What was a well-thought argument, based in fact, when put up against stubbornly held beliefs that people used as the basis for their entire existence? Nothing but hot air and frustration.

Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s doing something necessary in spite of it.”