Dean Koontz famous quotes

Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Prayer #Heart

Dogs invite us not only to share their joy but also to live in the moment, where we are neither proceeding from nor moving toward, where the enchantment of the past and future cannot distract us, where a freedom from practical desire and a cessation of our usual ceaseless action allows us to recognize the truth of our existence, the reality of our world and purpose--if we dare.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Moving #Past

Hope is the destination that we seek. Love is the road that leads to hope. Courage is the motor that drives us. We travel out of darkness into faith.
-- Dean Koontz

#Love #Darkness #Destination

Bunny slippers remind me of who I am.You can't get a swelled head if you wear bunny slippers. You can't lose your sense of perspective and start acting like a star or a rich lady if you keep on wearing bunny slippers. Besides, bunny slippers give me confidence because they're so jaunty. They make a statement; they say, 'Nothing the world does to me can ever get me so far down that I can't be silly and frivolous.
-- Dean Koontz

#Stars #Silly #Who I Am

There's no use wasting are energy being afraid of the devils, demons and things that go bump in the night... Because ultimately we'll never encounter anything more terrifying than the monster among us. Hell is where we make it.
-- Dean Koontz

#Fear #Night #Devil

No one can grant you happiness. Happiness is a choice we all have the power to make.
-- Dean Koontz

#Happiness #Choices #Happiness Is A Choice

Intuition is seeing with the soul.
-- Dean Koontz

#Soul #Intuition #Instinct

Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Pet #Wonderful

No matter how close we are to another person, few human relationships are as free from strife, disagreement, and frustration as is the relationship you have with a good dog. Few human beings give of themselves to another as a dog gives of itself. I also suspect that we cherish dogs because their unblemished souls make us wish - consciously or unconsciously - that we were as innocent as they are, and make us yearn for a place where innocence is universal and where the meanness, the betrayals, and the cruelties of this world are unknown.
-- Dean Koontz

#Relationship #Dog #Betrayal

In self-defense and in defense of the innocent, cowardice is the only sin.
-- Dean Koontz

#Self #Defense #Sin

The more you expect from life, the more your expectations will be fulfilled. By laughing, you do not use up your laughter, but increase your store of it. The more you love, the more you will be loved. The more you give, the more you will receive. Life proves that truth every hour, every day. And life continues to surprise.
-- Dean Koontz

#Laughter #Giving #Laughing

No one's life should be rooted in fear. We are born for wonder, for joy, for hope, for love, to marvel at the mystery of existence, to be ravished by the beauty of the world, to seek truth and meaning, to acquire wisdom, and by our treatment of others to brighten the corner where we are.
-- Dean Koontz

#Joy #World #Mystery

The less depth a belief system has, the greater the fervency with which its adherents embrace it. The most vociferous, the most fanatical are those whose cobbled faith is founded on the shakiest grounds.
-- Dean Koontz

#Depth #Belief #Embrace

All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined-those dead, those living, those generations yet to come-that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.
-- Dean Koontz

#Heart #Fate #Hands

If dogs talked, one of them would be president by now. Everybody likes dogs.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #President #Would Be

But once an idea for a novel seizes a writer...well, it’s like an inner fire that at first warms you and makes you feel good but then begins to eat you alive, burn you up from within. You can’t just walk away from the fire; it keeps burning. The only way to put it out is to write the book.
-- Dean Koontz

#Book #Writing #Fire

It's only life. We all get through it.
-- Dean Koontz

In each little life, we can see great truth and beauty, and in each little life we glimpse the way of all things in the universe. If we alow ourselves to be enchanted by the beauty of the ordinary, we begin to see that all things extraordinary.
-- Dean Koontz

#Glimpse #Ordinary #Littles

If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread, but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give to us.
-- Dean Koontz

#Grateful #People #Giving

The heart is an artist that paints over what profoundly disturbs it, leaving on the canvas a less dark, less sharp version of the truth.
-- Dean Koontz

#Truth #Heart #Dark

Given enough time, you could convince yourself that loneliness was something better, that it was solitude, the ideal condition for reflection, even a kind of freedom. Once you were thus convinced, you were foolish to open the door and let anyone in, not all the way in. You risked the hard-won equilibrium, that tranquility that you called peace
-- Dean Koontz

#Loneliness #Reflection #Doors

When a liar became too skilled at deception, he could lose the ability to discern truth, and could himself be more easily deceived.
-- Dean Koontz

#Liars #Lying #Deception

I think the world is full of evil people. I think in some ways we're in more danger now than before.
-- Dean Koontz

#Thinking #People #Evil

The hands of every clock are shears, trimming us away scrap by scrap, and every time piece with a digital readout blinks us towards implosion.
-- Dean Koontz

#Hands #Pieces #Literature

In this world only the paranoid survive.
-- Dean Koontz

#Wise #World #This World

In spite of where we were, how we had gotten here and why we had come, I felt that at this moment of our lives, this place was exactly where we belonged. We were not drifting but rising, rising toward something right and of significance.
-- Dean Koontz

#Rising #Moments #Spite

Authors of so-called 'literary' fiction insist that action, like plot, is vulgar and unworthy of a true artist. Don't pay any attention to misguided advice of that sort. If you do, you will very likely starve trying to live on your writing income. Besides, the only writers who survive the ages are those who understand the need for action in a novel.
-- Dean Koontz

#Writing #Artist #Advice

I am no theologian. I would not be surprised, however, if Heaven proved to be a cozy kitchen, where delicious treats appeared in the oven and in the refrigerator whenever you wanted them, and where the cupboards were full of good books.
-- Dean Koontz

#Book #Heaven #Kitchen

Do as little harm to others as you can; make any sacrifice for your true friends; be responsible for yourself and ask nothing of others; and grab all the fun you can. Don't give much thought to yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow, live in the moment, and trust that your existence has meaning even when the world seems to be all blind chance and chaos. When life lands a hammer blow in your face, do your best to respond to the hammer as if it had been a cream pie.
-- Dean Koontz

#Fun #True Friend #Sacrifice

One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Evoke #Tenderness

The most identifying trait of humanity is our abilty to be inhumane to one another.
-- Dean Koontz

#Humanity #Traits

I have been reading Stephen King since CARRIE and hope to read him for many years to come.
-- Dean Koontz

#Kings #Book #Reading

If something in your writing gives support to people in their lives, that’s more than just entertainment-w hich is what we writers all struggle to do, to touch people.
-- Dean Koontz

#Struggle #Writing #People

I admit to having an imagination feverish enough to melt good judgment.
-- Dean Koontz

#Inspirational #Imagination #Judgment

Every life is complicated, every mind a kingdom of unmapped mysteries.
-- Dean Koontz

#Mind #Kingdoms #Mystery

My life has a mysterious purpose that I don't understand, and day by day, conflict by conflict, I learn by going where I have to go.
-- Dean Koontz

#Purpose #Mysterious #Conflict

There are no explanations for human evil. Only excuses.
-- Dean Koontz

#Evil #Excuse #Explanation

None of us can ever save himself; we are the instruments of one another’s salvation, and only by the hope that we give to others do we lift ourselves out of the darkness into light.
-- Dean Koontz

#Light #Giving #Darkness

Sorrow is not a raven perched persistently above a chamber door. Sorrow is a thing with teeth, and while in time it retreats, it comes back at the whisper of it's name.
-- Dean Koontz

#Doors #Names #Ravens

Too much mystery is merely an annoyance. Too much adventure is exhausting. And a little terror goes a long way.
-- Dean Koontz

#Adventure #Long #Littles

The opportunity to love a dog and to treat it with kindness is an opportunity for a lost and selfish heart to be redeemed. They are powerless and innocent, and it is how we treat the humblest among us that surely determines the fate of our souls
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Kindness #Selfish

There's sometimes a weird benefit to having an alcoholic, violent father. He really motivated me in that I never wanted to be anything like him.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dad #Father #Alcohol

Each reader needs to bring his or her own mind and heart to the text.
-- Dean Koontz

#Heart #Mind #Needs

I believe that I was a dog in a past life. That's the only thing that would explain why I like to snack on Purina Dog Chow.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Believe #Past

Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.
-- Dean Koontz

#Stupid #Vigor #Given

Like all of us in this storm between birth and death, I can wreak no great changes on the world, only small changes for the better, I hope, in the lives of those I love.
-- Dean Koontz

#Storm #World #Change For The Better

Books were this wonderful escape for me because I could open a book and disappear into it, and that was the only way out of that house when I was a kid.
-- Dean Koontz

#Book #Kids #House

Even in the darkest moments, light exists if you have the faith to see it. Fear is a poison produced by the mind, and courage is the antidote stored always in the soul. In misfortune lies the seed of future triumph.
-- Dean Koontz

#Lying #Light #Soul

Every book has some real life in it. I was never pursued by an evil twin clone, but everything else in MR. MURDER was pretty much out of my own life.
-- Dean Koontz

#Real #Book #Evil

Lies hurt people; imagination makes life more fun.
-- Dean Koontz

#Hurt #Fun #Lying

I really believe that everyone has a talent, ability, or skill that he can mine to support himself and to succeed in life.
-- Dean Koontz

#Inspirational #Believe #Skills

Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled.
-- Dean Koontz

#Love #Pain #Writing

Time doesn’t, as advertised, heal all wounds. Although the wrenching immediacy of grief eventually passed, the settled sorrow that replaced it might in its own way be even more intense.
-- Dean Koontz

#Grief #Sorrow #Might

Readers will stay with an author, no matter what the variations in style and genre, as long as they get that sense of story, of character, of empathetic involvement.
-- Dean Koontz

#Character #Long #Empathy

Humanity is a parade of fools, and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton.
-- Dean Koontz

#Humanity #Fool #Parades

Six billion of us walking the planet, six billion smaller worlds on the bigger one. Shoe salesmen and short-order cooks who look boring from the outside - some have weirder lives than you. Six billion stories, every one an epic, full of tragedy and triumph, good and evil, despair and hope. You and me - we aren't so special, bro.
-- Dean Koontz

#Epic #Shoes #Order

Maybe when all was said and done, the imagination was the most powerful of all weapons. It was the imagination of the human race that had allowed it to dream of a life beyond cold caves and of a possible future in the stars.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dream #Stars #Powerful

She was fascinated with words. To her, words were things of beauty, each like a magical powder or potion that could be combined with other words to create powerful spells.
-- Dean Koontz

#Powerful #Powder

Fire, ice, asteroids and pole shifts are bogeymen with which we distract ourselves from the real threat of our time. In an age when everyone invents his own truth, there is no community, only factions. Without community, there can be no consensus to resist the greedy, the envious, the power-mad narcissists who seize control and turn the institutions of civilization into a series of doom machines.
-- Dean Koontz

#Real #Fire #Ice

Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life--and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.
-- Dean Koontz

#Friendship #World #Next

Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake.
-- Dean Koontz

#Cake #There Is Hope

Change isn't easy. Changing the way you live means changing the way you think, means changing what you believe about life. That's hard.
-- Dean Koontz

#Believe #Mean #Thinking

Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy.
-- Dean Koontz

#Love #Thinking #Compassion

The geometry of judgment is a circle. Hate is a snake that turns to consume itself from the tail, a circle that diminishes to a point, then to nothing. Pride is such a snake, and envy, and greed. Love, however, is a hoop, a wheel, that rolls on forever. We are rescued by those whom we have rescued. The saved become the saviors of their saviors.
-- Dean Koontz

#Hate #Pride #Snakes

Fear is a poison produced by the mind, and courage is the antidote stored always ready in the soul
-- Dean Koontz

#Soul #Mind #Poison

Grief is a healthy emotion, and it's healthy to embrace it. By accepting loss, we clarify our values and the meaning of our lives.
-- Dean Koontz

#Grief #Loss #Everything Happens For A Reason

A good dog is one of the best things of all to be.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Good Dog

A scar is not always a flaw. Sometimes a scar may be redemption inscribed in the flesh, a memorial to something endured, to something lost.
-- Dean Koontz

#Memorial #Redemption #May

Even in the darkest moments, light exists if you have faith to see it.
-- Dean Koontz

#Light #Have Faith #Moments

Without trust, there can be no tranquil resting of the mind.
-- Dean Koontz

#Mind #Without Trust #Tranquil

One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us. The disappointments of life, the injustices, the battering events that are beyond our control, and the betrayals we endure, from those we befriended and loved, can make us cynical and turn our hearts into flint – on which only the matches of anger and bitterness can be struck into flame. By their delight in being with us, the reliable sunniness of their disposition, the joy they bring to playtime, the curiosity with which they embrace each new experience, dogs can melt cynicism,and sweeten the bitter heart.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dog #Disappointment #Betrayal

In tragedy and despair, when an endless night seems to have fallen, hope can be found in the realization taht the companion of night is not another night, that the companion of night is day, that darkness always gives way to light, and that death rules only half of creation, life the other half.
-- Dean Koontz

#Night #Light #Giving

People who go to work every day, make sacrifices to raise families, and get through life without hurting other people if they can help it-those are the real heros.
-- Dean Koontz

#Hurt #Real #Hero

Even as a child, she had preferred night to day, had enjoyed sitting out in the yard after sunset, under the star-speckled sky listening to frogs and crickets. Darkness soothed. It softened the sharp edges of the world, toned down the too-harsh colors. With the coming of twilight, the sky seemed to recede; the universe expanded. The night was bigger than the day, and in its realm, life seemed to have more possibilities.
-- Dean Koontz

#Stars #Children #Twilight

Pain can be endured and defeated only if it is embraced. Denied or feared, it grows.
-- Dean Koontz

#Pain #Defeated #Grows

The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.
-- Dean Koontz

#Compassion #Empathy #Friendship Love

As long as I have laughter, I am not without hope
-- Dean Koontz

#Laughter #Long #Without Hope

Only time conquers time and its burdens.
-- Dean Koontz

#Time #Conquer #Burden

We are an arrogant species, full of terrible potential, but we also have a great capacity for love, friendship, generosity, kindness, faith, hope, and joy.
-- Dean Koontz

#Love #Kindness #Generosity

Home is the first refuge from - and last defense against - the disappointments and the terrors of life.
-- Dean Koontz

#Family #Disappointment #Home

Life without meaning cannot be borne. We find a mission to which we're sworn -or answer the call of Death's dark horn. Without a gleaning of purpose in life, we have no vision, we live in strife, -or let blood fall on a suicide knife.
-- Dean Koontz

#Suicide #Fall #Suicidal

The answer to the mystery of existence is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when the loss wakes you to the deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can't get off your knees for a long time, you're driven to your knees not by the weight of the loss but by gratitude for what preceded the loss.
-- Dean Koontz

#Gratitude #Grief #Love You

Each book is a mind alive, a life revealed, a world awaiting exploration, but living people are all those things, as well—and more, because their stories haven’t yet been completely told.
-- Dean Koontz

#Book #People #Mind

Every eye sees its own special vision; every ear hears a most different song. In each man's troubled heart, an incision would reveal a unique, shameful wrong.
-- Dean Koontz

#Song #Heart #Eye

There is nothing fatherly about time and what it does to us, either.
-- Dean Koontz

#Time #Doe

Every day we make our way through a moral forest, along pathways ever branching. Often we get lost. When the array of paths before us is so perplexing that we can't make a choice, or won't, we can hope that we will be given a sign to guide us. A reliance on signs, however, can lead to the evasion of all moral obligations, and thus earn a terrible judgment.
-- Dean Koontz

#Choices #Pathways #Forests

When things are baffling they usually don't unbaffle themselves.There's just, you know, a certain amount of baffling stuff that always, like, really baffles you, and I've found that it's best to accept bafflement whenever it comes along, and then move on.
-- Dean Koontz

#Moving #Confusion #Stuff

For some, the past is a chain, each day a link, raveling backward to one ringbolt or another, in one dark place or another, and tomorrow is a slave to yesterday.
-- Dean Koontz

#Dark #Past #Yesterday

We are not born to wait. We are born to do.
-- Dean Koontz

#Waiting #Born

Wealth is power, and power is the only thing about which contemporary culture cares.
-- Dean Koontz

#Culture #Care #Wealth

How passionately we love everything that cannot last: the dazzling crystallory of winter, the spring in bloom, the fragile flight of butterflies, crimson sunsets, a kiss, and life.
-- Dean Koontz

#Spring #Sunset #Butterfly

Thanks to the circus between my ears, I can seize upon the smallest disquieting observation and from it extrapolate a terror of cataclysmic proportions.
-- Dean Koontz

#Anxiety #Ears #Circus

What sucks the worst is . . . this world was a gift to us, and we broke it, and part of the deal is that if we want things right, we have to fix it ourselves. But we can't. We try, but we can't.
-- Dean Koontz

#Trying #World #Want

Loyal companions are an unequaled grace, stanching fear before it bleeds you numb, a reliable antidote for creeping despair.
-- Dean Koontz

#Loyalty #Grace #Despair

we must seize life because we never know how much of it remains for us, that faith is the antidote to despair and that laughter is the music of faith.
-- Dean Koontz

#Laughter #Despair #Antidote

You can con God and get away with it, Granny said, if you do so with charm and wit. If you live your life with imagination and verve, God will play along just to see what outrageously entertaining thing you'll do next.
-- Dean Koontz

#Play #Imagination #Live Your Life

No degree of prosperity can be sufficient to eliminate all misfortune, and sloth is impervious to opportunity.
-- Dean Koontz

#Opportunity #Sloth #Degrees

Even if God exists, does He know that you do?
-- Dean Koontz

#Doe #God Exists

The recognition of pain and fear in others give rise in us to pity, and in our pity is our humanity, our redemption.
-- Dean Koontz

#Pain #Giving #Humanity

I've a long list of things I don't know how I've done, but I've done them. In the end, it's always about perseverance.
-- Dean Koontz

#Perseverance #Long #Done