"I came because of all those letters," King said to stunned students. Listening to King talk to students is quite different. He hits new territory. For instance . . He admits to forging a report card. He discusses writing with the door "open" and "closed."
At about the 9:40 mark the video shifts to a larger assembly.
This is morbid and great. . .
People like me are always going to die. There's always going to be room at the bottom because people at the top are going to croak. I used to comfort myself when I was starting out and when these old guys . . . one of them Herman Wouk, another was James Michener. . . they were perennial best sellers and my stories were rejected -- when I was in High School I had a nail in my wall and when I got these rejections slips from magazines I would stick it on the nail. Before I sold a story, the nail tore out of the wall because it had sixty or 70 of those things on it. I was lucky it was that few.
I used to tell myself Michener and Wouk and all those people are eventually going to die and they will have to consider me because I have the advantage of youth. I've got to tell you one thing. . . Herman Wouk is still alive. I wrote a story called that. I got a letter from him, fiery handwriting, "I like your story."He said he is called a horror writer, but what he really wants is an emotional reaction. He's good with scaring people, or getting them to cry. . . so long as he gets a response.
He told the larger assembly that he doesn't remember a lot about writing particular books -- it is like moving through a dream.
My favorite line: "This is a little bit like being crazy, except they pay you for it."
