The Stand

by Stephen King

Your mother’s in charge of blowjobs at a whorehouse in Asshole, Indiana!”

Asshole, Indiana

Trashcan Man, had wandered up and down the streets of Powtanville, Indiana,

Indiana again

We’ve become so used to the idea of the flu—it seems almost like the common cold to us, doesn’t it?—that no one but the historians seems to know that a hundred years ago it didn’t exist.

Did not know this

No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just … come out the other side. Or you don’t.

the shining lamp of God, sometimes just the shine.

The shining reference

“The Bible, it don’t say what happened to Noah and his family after the flood went down. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some awful tussle for the souls of those few people—for their souls, their bodies, their way of thinking. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that was what was on for us.

This is the crux of the story. Whether what comes after the plague is evil or good

But say, didn’t that Mr. Donald King of Peru, Indiana, talk sweet.

A boy does not need a father unless he is a good father, but a good father is indispensable.

And for just a moment he had seen how much their faces had changed between those old days, those first days, and that moment of insight, standing on the tile floor of the locker room with the black robe in his hands.

“I am God’s Tom.”

Harold had not just killed Nick and Sue; he had stolen their light.

The goal of terrorism in general