The Gunslinger Quotes

Was it pretty? Your country ... your land?" "It was beautiful," the gunslinger said. "There were fields and forests and rivers and mists in the morning. But that's only pretty. My mother used to say that the only real beauty is order and love and light. ~ Stephen King

So for a moment the gunslinger merely stood inside the door, first amazed, then ironically amused. Here he was in a world which struck him dumb with fresh wonders seemingly at every step, a world where carriages flew trough the air and paper seemed as cheap as sand. And the newest wonder was simply that for these people, wonder had run out: here, in a place of miracles, he saw only dull faces and plodding bodies. ~ Stephen King

Sure. Knock yourself out." "I don't understand you." "Do what you want." "Ah." The gunslinger nodded and lay back. Knock myself out, he thought. Knock. Myself out. ~ Stephen King

The gunslinger came awake from a confused dream which seemed to consist of a single image: that of the Sailor in the Tarot deck from which the man in black had dealt (or purported to deal) the gunslinger's own moaning future. ~ Stephen King

I denied Discordia and regret nothing; I have spat into the bodiless eyes of the Crimson King and rejoice; I threw my lot with the gunslinger and the White and never once questioned the choice. ~ Stephen King

No," Roland said, "but it's a fair tale. Tell it to the end, please." Eddie did, finishing with the required They lived happily ever after, and the gunslinger nodded. "No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves, don't we?" "Yeah," Jake said. ~ Stephen King

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. ~ Stephen King

a small few actually able to do those things of which men whisper - these few could call demons and the dead, could kill with a curse or heal with strange potions. One of these men had been a creature the gunslinger believed to be a demon himself, a creature that pretended to be a man and called itself Flagg. He had seen him only briefly, and that had been near the end, as chaos and the final crash approached his land. Hot on his heels had come two young men who looked desperate and yet grim, men named Dennis and Thomas. These three had crossed only a tiny part of what had been a confused and confusing time in the gunslinger's life, but he would never forget seeing Flagg change a man who had irritated him into a howling dog. He remembered that well enough. ~ Stephen King

Oy?" he asked. "Will you say goodbye?"
Oy looked at Roland, and for a moment the gunslinger wasn't sure he understood. Then the bumbler extended his neck and caressed the boy's cheek a last time with his tongue. "I, Ake," he said: Bye, Jake or I ache, it came to the same. ~ Stephen King

Below the waterbag were his guns,finely weighted to his hand. The two belts crisscrossed above his crotch. The holsters were oiled too deeply for even this Philistine sun to crack. The stocks of the guns were sandalwood, yellow and finely grained. The holsters were tied down with
raw hide cord, and they swung heavily against his hips. The brass casings of the cartridges looped into the gun belts twinkled and flashed and heliographed in the sun. The leather made subtle
creaking noises. The guns themselves made no noise. ~ Stephen King

A large praying mantis was performing ablutions on the springy stem of the kid's cowlick. The gunslinger snorted laughter-the first in gods knew how long-and set the fire and went after water. ~ Stephen King

Do you believe in an afterlife?" the gunslinger asked him as Brown dropped three ears of hot corn onto his plate.
Brown nodded. "I think this is it. ~ Stephen King

The gunslinger said, "I used to think the most terrible thing would be to reach the Dark Tower and find the top room empty. The God of all universes either dead or nonexistent in the first place. But now ... suppose there is someone there, Eddie? Someone in charge who turns out to be ... " He couldn't finish.
Eddie could. "Someone who turns out to be just another bumhug? Is that it? God not dead but feeble-minded and malicious? ~ Stephen King

for the first time in months or years the gunslinger could see real, living green. ~ Stephen King

When the sun was fully up, the gunslinger moved on west. He would find another horse eventually, or a mule, but for now he was content to walk. All that day he was haunted by a ringing, singing sound in his ears, a sound like bells. Several times he stopped and looked around, sure he would see a dark following shape flowing over the ground, chasing after as the shadows of our best and worst memories chase after, but no shape was ever there. He was alone in the low hill country west of Eluria. Quite alone. ~ Stephen King

The gunslinger waited for the time of the drawing and dreamed his long dreams of the Dark Tower, to which he would some day come at dusk and approach, winding his horn, to do some unimaginable final battle. ~ Stephen King

At first everything went according to plan and they called it ka. When things began going wrong and the dying started, they called that ka, too. Ka, the gunslinger could have told them, was often the last thing you had to rise above. ~ Stephen King

and for the first time in months or years the gunslinger could see real, living green. Grass, ~ Stephen King

The gunslinger occasionally moaned with the wind. The stars were as indifferent to this as they were to wars, crucifixions, resurrections. ~ Stephen King

The man in black fled across the dessert and the gunslinger followed. ~ Stephen King

I understood it," the boy said. "It was a game, wasn't it? Do grown men always have to play games? Does everything have to be an excuse for another kind of game? Do any men grow up or do they only come of age?"
"You don't know everything," the gunslinger said, trying to hold his slow anger.
"No. But I know what I am to you."
"And what is that?" The gunslinger asked tightly.
"A poker chip. ~ Stephen King

What seems solid to us is actually only a loose net held together by gravity. Everything in the Universe denies 'nothing'. To suggest an ending is the one absurdity -The Man in Black from Stephen King's The Gunslinger ~ Stephen King

He taught me if you kill what you love, you're damned." "I am damned already," Roland said calmly. "But per-haps even the damned may be saved."

"Are you going to get all of us killed?" Roland said nothing.

Eddie seized the rags of Roland's shirt. "Are you going to get her killed?" "We all die in time," the gunslinger said. "It's not just the world that moves on." He looked squarely at Eddie, his faded blue eyes almost the color of slate in this light. "But we will be magnificent." He paused. "There's more than a world to win, Eddie. I would not risk you and her - I would not have allowed the boy to die - if that was all there was."

"What are you talking about?"

"Everything there is," the gunslinger said calmly. "We are going to go, Eddie. We are going to fight. We are going to be hurt. And in the end we will stand." Now it was Eddie who said nothing. He could think of nothing to say. Roland gently grasped Eddie's arm. "Even the damned love," he said. ~ Stephen King

What's that mean?" Eddie asked. "I hate it when you start up with your Zen Buddhist shit, Roland." "It means I don't know," Roland said. "Who is this man Zen Buddhist? Is he wise like me?" Eddie looked at Roland for a long, long time before deciding the gunslinger was making one of his rare jokes. "Ah, get outta here ... ~ Stephen King

You do look a little pale," the army woman said. "I thought maybe it was air sickness."
"Pure hunger"
She gave him a professional smile. "I'll see what I can rustle up."
Russel? the gunslinger thought dazedly. In his own world 'to russel' was a slang verb meaning to take a woman by force. Never mind, food would come. ~ Stephen King

The gunslinger turned his eyes up to the faces in the leaves. A play was being enacted there for his amusement Worlds rose and fell before him. Empires were built across shining sands where forever machines toiled in abstract electronic frenzies. Empires declined and fell. Wheels that had spun like silent liquid moved more slowly, began to squeak, began to scream, stopped. Sand choked the stainless steel gutters of concentric streets below dark skies full of stars like beds of cold jewels. And through it all, a dying wind of change blew, bringing with it the cinnamon smell of late October. The gunslinger watched as the world moved on. ~ Stephen King

Why am I here?" Jake asked. "Why did I forget everything from before?" "Because the man in black has drawn you here," the gunslinger said. "And because of the Tower. The Tower stands at a kind of . . . power-nexus. In time." "I don't understand that! ~ Stephen King

Beg your pardon,' the gunslinger said. 'I was wool-gathering. ~ Stephen King

Their situation was becoming ever harder to deny: they were characters in someone's story. This whole world
~ Stephen King

She wanted to savor him slowly like a lemon cream pie on a lazy summer day. One bite at a time. ~ Sandra Jones

An old gunslinger once told me that you never draw a gun unless you intend to use it, and you never - ever - tell someone you are going to draw your gun. You just do it. ~ Michael Scott

Death, but not for you, gunslinger. Never for you. You darkle. You tinct. May I be brutally frank? You go on. ~ Stephen King

Shall there be truth between us, as two men? Not as friends, but as enemies and equals? ~ Stephen King

Time is a thief of memory ~ Stephen King

Jamie DeCurry had once proclaimed that Roland could shoot blindfolded, because he had eyes in his fingers. ~ Stephen King

If you didn't have your guns, you still had your mouth. Of course, you had to be careful how you fired that off. ~ Dean F. Wilson

I know these days it sounds a little odd, but American governments are very fearful of European reaction. They were afraid we would be considered gunslingers. ~ Michael Scheuer

His father used to tell him that you can't eat principles. And no, you couldn't. But you could live by them. ~ Dean F. Wilson

You're fortunate I've already beaten someone else to death today, gunslinger. I have a schedule to keep. ~ John Jackson Miller

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Make do. ~ Stephen King

Death, but not for you, gunslinger. ~ Stephen King

There will be water if God wills it. ~ Stephen King

When I first started, I wasn't really into movies that much unless it was an action-packed gunslinger with naked women here and there. ~ Josh Duhamel

Huh? What did I promise?"
"Fowevew," he said with a nod, like it was final.
"Exactly."
We stared at each other, and it reminded me of my first day, when he stared me down like a mute gunslinger. ~ Amber L. Johnson

Are you a gunslinger, Roland? If you are, you better get ready. ~ Stephen King

TV is all about speed. TV is fast and furious. It's gunslinger territory. ~ Amy Sherman-Palladino

This is going to sound strange, but I really didn't think I would pass 30. I don't know why or whatever, I just didn't. That's a very weird thing to say, I'm sorry. I don't know. Maybe it's because I was drinking so much as a youth. ~ Kristin Davis

They had discovered one could grow as hungry for light as for food. ~ Stephen King

Would you kill all your answers so easily, gunslinger? ~ Stephen King