Gerald's Game

by Stephen King

It was really quite amazing how many different tracks the human mind could work on at the same time.

It was funny how little you saw, sometimes. How little you saw even after you thought you’d seen it all.

it was easy to reflect on the past and just as easy (although a lot less pleasant) to go wandering off into possible versions of the future. The really tough job seemed to be staying in the present,

she had in some fashion or other been prepared for failure. It was success which left her shocked and gaping.

They ought to make it a law that you have to get a license, or at least a learner’s permit, before you’re allowed to talk. Until you pass your Talker’s Test, you should have to be a mute. It would solve a lot of problems.

She wants to change the past, but the past is heavy—trying to do that, she discovers, is like trying to pick up the house by one corner so you can look under it for things that have been lost, or forgotten, or hidden.

being an adult seemed more like a punishment than a reward.

pity came cheap in the aftermath of tragedy, and that all the pity in the world wasn’t worth a pisshole in the snow.