H.L. Sudler > H.L.'s Quotes

“Be sure of yourself, but never so much that you forget to give thanks.”
― H.L. Sudler, From Man to Gentleman: A Beginner's Guide to Manhood

“Your personal appearance speaks volumes before you say a word out your mouth.”
― H.L. Sudler, From Man to Gentleman: A Beginner's Guide to Manhood

“Stop looking at shiny objects on the ground.”
― H.L. Sudler, From Man to Gentleman: A Beginner's Guide to Manhood

“Forgive yourself. You made a mistake. Make amends and move forward to a better you and a brighter tomorrow.”
― H.L. Sudler, From Man to Gentleman: A Beginner's Guide to Manhood

“I'm not advising you to do wrong, but if you're going to do wrong do wrong right.”
― H.L. Sudler

“Be careful of thinking you know a person so well. Like comic books, everyone has an origin story…and oftentimes it ain’t pretty.”
― H.L. Sudler

“The tragedy of my life, and curse, is that I have all this love to give and no one to give it to.”
― H.L. Sudler

“People don't like sex because it's clean. People like sex because it's dirty. Anyone trying to convince you otherwise is a bold-faced liar trying to sucker you into shame.”
― H.L. Sudler

“If you take yourself too seriously, no one will. But if you don't take yourself seriously enough, no one else will either.”
― H.L. Sudler, The Looking Glass

“A blank slate puts the author's imagination to work by using his mind's eye to record and examine, and ultimately report on, a world others cannot see.”
― H.L. Sudler

“Before the autumn of our years, there exists a time when we struggle to reconcile what we are with what we wish to be. This time can be known as summer. After spring gives us life, before winter takes it away.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“I get inspired to write by watching the news. I listen to conversations I shouldn't listen to. I pay attention to my fears. I ask 'what if?' all the time. I remember things from my childhood. I think of themes, not storylines. I listen to my characters, and let them tell me what the story is. I never force anything. I listen to lots of music. I watch lots of movies. I let my mind wander. I read so much my eyes feel like they're going to fall out of my head. I wait until the fruits of my labor are ripe before eating them.”
― H.L. Sudler

“The best thing about being a writer is the writer's imagination, which is, given the day, time, or date, either a paradise or a prison. It is where some of our fondest friends exist. There is also the wonder of possibility. In a writer's imagination anything is possible, daydreams are like movies, feelings have so much impact, and your mind's eye sees everything. But also in a writer's imagination exists his fears, and it sometimes is the only place--in his imagination--where he can face his fears, conquer them, and then use that battle to teach or entertain.”
― H.L. Sudler

“You are never more powerful than when you learn. You are never more powerful than when you teach.”
― H.L. Sudler

“Do not become too pretty with yourself. And by that I mean, do not be afraid to get down in the dirt and tell stories that need to be told, using the appropriate language needed to convey the tale. Use the world around you, the people in it, the situations, the timeless problems and delimmas and yearnings. The further you get from this, with ornate and flowery language, with homogenized and predictable storytelling, the further away you push the audience. For the reason the reader has come to you, the writer, is to see themselves. In Romance, in Westerns, in Science Fiction, in Horror. They want to be able to put themselves in your story, to live it, see it, breathe it. Even if they are unfamiliar with the world you've created or are frightened by it, or it makes them uncomfortable, the reader wants the thrill of a rollercoaster ride. So give the audience its monies worth. I've said this before and I'll say it again. Tell me a good story and I will listen.”
― H.L. Sudler

“Alone. Yes, that's the key word, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn't hold a candle to it and hell is only a poor synonym.”
― Stephen King

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
― Stephen King

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
― Stephen King, Different Seasons

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
― Stephen King

“Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on.”
― Stephen King, Bag of Bones

“The ocean drummed as loud as pulsating blood, eroding the sand, rushing the beach as if it had a point to prove. And like many things, it receded, was gone, and was replaced anew.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“Knowing too much had turned him into something else, and he wasn't sure he liked this newer him, although he felt he could not stop being this other him, darker.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“Warren was nearly hoarse as he wiped the tears from his eyes and face. "I need to change. I need to protect my family. I need to earn who I am.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“He could not have faced her right then. He had started to sense their relationship was over, that she wanted more than he could ever give her. They hardly saw each other any longer, had nothing much to discuss, and had even ceased doing the one thing they were good at. Still, to smell the sheets where she had lain brought him a certain peace, lulling him to sleep under the veil of her perfume. He dreamed they were married, running beneath a flurry of white rose petals, and then a door slammed shut, and suddenly he was awake. He was back at Cedar House, and it was night and the room was dark.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“I wish I could kiss you just once and you'd understand what's in my heart.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“There is nothing so sexy as a good-looking man in a good-looking pair of shorts.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“Even in the gay spots around town, he could walk in and suddenly realize he was the only person of color in the room. He faced questions in all the eyes he greeted. What’s he doing here? Does he think he’s one of us? How ironic that even here in the nation’s self-proclaimed “gay summer capital” he should feel unwanted, excluded.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“She had traveled to more cities, had experienced more scenes, than anyone she knew, and still she had come away from it all with only an abysmal sense of dissatisfaction. When would it all begin, the good part of this story she was living? When would she find her destiny, her purpose? When would she have the control her mother wielded, the drive her father possessed? When would she cease living the same wretched days over and over? Why was she still feeling empty and meaningless? Why—after all this time—did her purpose in life still escape her?”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville

“Where had the summer gone? At first endless, then suddenly over. Death was in the chilled air, and the leaves would turn before long, as birds formed V-shaped excursions to the south. One by one, each of the boardwalk businesses would shut down for the season, boarded up for Nor’easters and winter storms. The city would thin out dramatically, a ghost town compared to the summer.”
― H.L. Sudler, Summerville