{ "type": "book", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "title": "Night Shift", "slug": "night-shift", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/night-shift", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/night-shift.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/night-shift.md", "author": { "name": "Stephen King", "slug": "stephen-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king" }, "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/hodder-stoughton/stephen-king/night-shift_978-14-4476-438-3.jpg", "quotes_count": 4, "quotes": [ { "id": "f26aee5d-f809-4873-aba5-769fbf6321be", "slug": "fear-is-an-emotion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/night-shift/fear-is-an-emotion", "text": "Fear is an emotion that makes us blind. How many things are we afraid of? We're afraid to turn off the lights when our hands are wet. We're afraid to stick a knife into the toaster to get the stuck English muffin without unplugging it first. We're afraid of what the doctor may tell us when the physical exam is over; when the airplane suddenly takes a great unearthly lurch in midair. We're afraid that the oil may run out, that the good air will run out, the good water, the good life. When the daughter promised to be in by eleven and it's now quarter past twelve and sleet is spatting against the window like dry sand, we sit and pretend to watch Johnny Carson and look occasionally at the mute telephone and we feel the emotion that makes us blind, the emotion that makes a stealthy ruin of the thinking process.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Night_Shift_(short_story_collection)#Foreword", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:41" }, { "id": "dc6a22b8-1c24-4473-8284-a13ebf7719d2", "slug": "i-didnt-write", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/night-shift/i-didnt-write", "text": "I didn't write them for money; I wrote them because it occurred to me to write them. I have a marketable obsession. There are madmen and madwomen in padded cells the world over who are not so lucky.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "writing", "slug": "writing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing" }, { "name": "obsession", "slug": "obsession", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obsession" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Night_Shift_(short_story_collection)#Foreword", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:41" }, { "id": "9fb2c8c9-b152-4461-8bb0-da94a612b21f", "slug": "the-arts-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/night-shift/the-arts-are", "text": "The arts are obsessional, and obsession is dangerous. It's like a knife in the mind...Art is a localized illness, usually benign - creative people tend to live a long time - sometimes terribly malignant. You use the knife carefully, because you know it doesn't care who it cuts. And if you are wise you sift the sludge carefully...because some of that stuff may not be dead.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "art", "slug": "art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art" }, { "name": "obsession", "slug": "obsession", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/obsession" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Night_Shift_(short_story_collection)#Foreword", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:41" }, { "id": "36939251-0f67-4819-b670-89137f3b6428", "slug": "fear-makes-us-blind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/night-shift/fear-makes-us-blind", "text": "Fear makes us blind, and we touch each fear with all the avid curiosity of self-interest, trying to make a whole out of a hundred parts, like the blind men with their elephant. We sense the shape. Children grasp it easily, forget it, and relearn it as adults. The shape is there, and most of us come to realize what it is sooner or later: it is the shape of a body under a sheet. All our fears add up to one great fear, all our fears are part of that great fear - an arm, a leg, a finger, an ear. We're afraid of the body under the sheet. It's our body. And the great appeal of horror fiction through the ages is that it serves as a rehearsal for our own deaths.", "language": "en", "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "fear", "slug": "fear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Night_Shift_(short_story_collection)#Foreword", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:41" } ] }