Misery

by Stephen King

He was Paul Sheldon, who wrote novels of two kinds, good ones and best-sellers.

There was a photo of a balding, bespectacled man who looked to Paul like the type of fellow who might eat boogers in secret.

What is it Thomas Hardy says in Jude the Obscure? “Someone could have come along and eased the boy’s terror, but nobody did… because nobody does.”

A little talent is a nice thing to have if you want to be a writer, but the only real requirement is that ability to remember the story of every scar. Art consists of the persistence of memory.

The reason authors almost always put a dedication on a book, Annie, is because their selfishness even horrifies themselves in the end.