Talking Volumes: Stephen King on "Carrie"

Author Stephen King talks about his first published novel, "Carrie," during the Talking Volumes series at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kerri Miller hosted the live event November 18, 2009.

[@pattisgirls]

Thank you Tabitha for fishing out of the trash what would become my favorite story above anything else :) Be it book or movie, I can't get enough of it.

[@spotdathief]

Carrie is my favorite novel by stephen king!!! It gives you such a real feeling

[@solosulu6971]

I can only imagine how sick Stephen King is of telling people how Carrie came to be.

[@MikeRoberts1964]

I think he likes riffing on the story; I've never heard him tell it exactly the same way twice. Plus, it's the price of fame, I think.

[@davidschreck1321]

@@MikeRoberts1964 he's said before that he can't exactly remember how it happened, just the main parts. He said in the book that he could barely remember the conversation between he and Bill. He's old, that was ages ago, during that time he was heavily drinking and overworked and exhausted, and also when it happened he was basically in shock from it all.

[@johnnyboy-ws3we]

yeah many cartoon's did stuff based on carrie to

[@rnw2739]

Well, I'm sure any exasperation or ennui he may feel when asked about how Carrie came to be, soon disperses when he remembers without Carrie, he wouldn't be the Stephen King we know today.

[@jackgoldstrom5980]

Carrie is my all time favorite book

[@bobbiebodamer1094]

here is my favorite writer he knows exactly what scares people

[@BartholomewMahershalalhashbaz]

Bobbie Bodamer same

[@davidschreck1321]

I know what scares people, amd I used to be able to write horrifying stories and dream of being an author... until society told me to get a job, hold my tongue, and stop daydreaming. Now I can't even seem to get a gory scene out. I wish there were avenues for people like me so we didn't have to conform to survive and hope that our passion somehow stays. I was only ever happy while writing, amd now I can't seem to.

[@KajaKamisama]

@@davidschreck1321 Scary stories don't need to be bloody. Write whatever you like or feel inspired by at the moment. If you can't bring yourself to it, then take a break. It's okay to rest.

[@charlimartin8709]

I love his books, and i'm always surprised by how normal he is in real life. Can't judge an author by their subject matter.

[@jbvader721]

It's always the "normal" ones who write the creepy stuff.

[@Gurl-5150]

I'm always surprised at how HILARIOUS he is. So funny!

[@mak_attakks]

@@Gurl-5150 same. His talks are basically standup comedy

[@EndlessLaymon]

This man inspired me to become a writer.

[@satanbrony9235]

May I ask how is that going for you?

[@EndlessLaymon]

@@satanbrony9235 Got a book published, then life just happened. And now I'm more focused. It's a passion I've never lost.

[@hishaybe]

Maggie Stiefvater is to me what Stephen King is to you. Never stop writing!

[@rhymeandreasoning]

I remember being in junior high in the middle 70s here in Canada..They had the book CARRIE with the movie cover in the library..I wanted to read it badly but was always reserved. Eventually the book was BANNED from the school library.

[@xunicornfartz6309]

I don't think carrie is appropriate for school

[@Vydio]

xUnicornFartz Why not?

[@xunicornfartz6309]

@@Vydio the words they use (cursing)

[@ediesongbird3163]

xUnicornFartz by that logic most high schoolers should be banned from schools

[@skywarp1470]

xUnicornFartz Jesus christ. A lot of books have cursing.

[@erinschr]

I've read this story a dozen times, but hearing King recite it makes it feel so fresh.

[@xunicornfartz6309]

I think instead of Carrie he should have named it "my name is Susan Snell" because in the novel he made it seem like Sue was the author like she was writing it based on her experience in the black prom

[@deniseadam1333]

Not entirely. The book is about Carrie, not Sue. It’s called “Carrie” for a reason.

[@masonclark4770]

I don’t think I would be opposed to that. I think it would’ve been interesting to do this story from Sue Snell’s POV. However, I think the title of Carrie works, simply because it stands out as something eerie. That’s just to me anyway.

[@raynmooney]

Could probably get away with a title like that now, but at the time he probably had to make every inch count, including a simple title.

[@EastSide-qc5oy]

It’s been a while since I read it, but doesn’t the Point of View switch around from character to character? Carrie, Sue, Chris Hargensen, others. And in between it’s snippets of news reports. Sue was the more prominent voice though, because she’s being interviewed by the commission. I could be wrong about all of this though.

[@celebritypredictions]

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome story. I love Carrie!!

[@morpheos111]

Great storyteller. And I'll bet the most famous writer in the US right now. His stories are everywhere and his characters are some of the most famous in American fiction. Long may he live.

[@DeborahBertling]

This is inspirational. Even when the chips are down we have to follow our dreams!!

[@blondedbythelight703]

He's so humble and honest..

[@saigenrose1032]

Stephen King is an absolute genius, love his movies & books.

[@TomRipley7350]

I can see all of your dirty pillows.

[@isahaqyusuf777]

Tom Ripley breast mama every woman has them

[@xunicornfartz6309]

There very fashionable these days

[@donniehagy970]

The line is "I can see your dirty pillows." The reply, "Breasts mama. They're called breasts and every woman has them."

[@brianna.nichole]

Donnie Hagy in the 2002 remake the reply was “They’re called breasts, mama. All the girls have ‘em and they’re very fashionable these days.”

[@Rhysthomas309]

Brikachu well it’s what Stephen king does he changes lines in he’s remakes

[@BartHartful]

Obviously it has a lot more to do than writing, which takes him four months to years to finish. Then there is editing, then there is proofing, then it goes to his editors, then it has a rough print which he approves, then it goes into print, then it is marketed, then he does book tours and shows promoting, all the while still working on his other work. ;-) And Carrie was pulled out of the trash by his wife. He thought it was not worth it.

[@Adam-im3uz]

I don't think Stephen King books need to be "marketed".

[@cloudvol7]

I can tell Stephen King was blown away for how much he got for writing that book,those 9 months he took to write it,definately paid off.

[@davidschreck1321]

Me procrastinating watching Stephen King videos instead of writing my book: "Yup, tomorrow's the day. I'm gonna be rich."

[@LesMachinesNoires]

Love the ending. Stephen is always amazing.

[@adhunikmanav2638]

I recently started reading Mr. King's books. And I'm hooked. Positively. First one was Pet Sematary and second one I read which i finished in 24 hours was Carrie. Now i'll read either IT or The Shining.

[@rajamohammed8683]

Stephen King is one of my favourite authors. He has that enthusiasm of a storyteller i like to see in every writer. We need more and more books and more and more readers. I have some issues about the way he describes blood and gore but he has his pluses too as a writer. It is destiny that makes a writer successful among people. I think a writer can't predict their own success. But a writer could write on hoping for the best.

[@JoyGrenade]

I love him so, so, so much.

[@manpower386ify]

He's the KING of all authors.

[@princearshad1709]

Stephen sure did a great job!Carrie is probably my favourite.It's soooo interesting.

[@Pentapus1024]

Sure do love that man. Stephen King... thank you for hours and hours and hours of awesome adventure, weirdness juxtaposed with normality and all things ranging from horrific to sweet. Also: "Meteor shit!"

[@oliviagiles]

I love when he tells this story.

[@missytempleman4793]

This story happens in every highschool America.🙂

[@missytempleman4793]

Your wife is just as special as you are Stephen. Misery was a hard one. Kathy Bates was so crazy in it!!! American Horror Story. They cut off Kathy Bates Characters head and tied her in a basement to live forever and watch "Roots" the movie. Not the band even though they are just as important. Nobody knows...not even me. We have to figure it out. Pintos! Those were cute cars! Standards are hard. I learned on a Supra. They're fun to drive once you are taught how to drive it. 🙂🙃😁🤣🤕🤑😉🙃😃😃😃🤪🤪😃🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤯🥳🤠😃😊😇😉🙂🤣🤣🤣

[@jadamariewilliams9323]

I didn't know Stephen King has a great sense of humor!

[@dakanoa]

A very very very big influencer. A living legend. Such an impressive dude. Greetings from Bavaria germany

[@samnangpoe]

i like steve cause he's humble and pretty down to earth. not pretentious like alot of other writers.

[@juniorpena4642]

Goes to show you, Behind of every successful man is a greater woman.

[@zaftra]

yeah, because she like, wrote them.

[@E_MacCallumBass]

The future lies ahead... And so it did stephen king rocks.

[@gracebarber4496]

If us wasn’t for Stephens wife we wouldn’t have this iconic novel

[@jay733]

Anybody know where I can see the whole interview of this?

[@allxtarmusic]

him and Ken Follett are the most amusing writers to both read and hear

[@milanradojevic8266]

damn shame there is no full video :(

[@TLR1219]

Fabulous writer

[@jasminehouston-burns1691]

I love how writers are so often unaware of the significance and meaning of their work. You see people at times trying so hard to infuse some sort of higher meaning into things and unless that meaning is really deft it can often seem desperate and insincere.

[@Speedywtf]

Legendary!💪

[@jadamariewilliams9323]

I'm reading Stephen King books and I'm 12!

[@nelsongeraldes7673]

jada-marie jay jay Same girl! Same! Well you are probably 16 by now

[@TabrisFruLar]

jada-marie jay jay I started reading King when I was 10 and I’m alright. LoL.

[@s1234pro]

Mr. King is so humble.

[@p.johnson1824]

Beautiful story...

[@jmsessn]

needful things by him is by far, hands down my all time favorite. second is the green mile and third is rose madder

[@ProfessorKenneth]

Hes brilliant. His first book technically was the long walk, but Carrie saw print. Hes really..or was really a great writer. I read Carrie, Firestarter, Christine, Holly was alright. All these girl named titles..lol.. rage was really good.

[@parapoliticos52]

Yes, it started as an Episode of One Step Beyond

[@giovannirastrelli9821]

Love the sensible grandpa shoes.

[@Horrorman5]

Audrey Niffenegger, she's author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry.

[@warrioroftheworld01]

@kamelion7 King has been asked many times about the movie and he always answers that it is one of his favourite adaptations done from his work!

[@diontaedaughtry974]

You get the greatest lessons in life when you're down.

[@uriahpeep9036]

There is a major mistake made in the 1976 version of Carrie. It occurs in the scene when Carrie goes to the school library and searches for a book to help her understand her emerging powers. The book removed from the shelf is......"The Secret Science Behind Miracles" by Max Freedom Long, first copyright 1948. The next shot shows Carrie thumbing to the index and there she is reading a paragraph about telekinesis. This scene is a total misrepresentation of the book. In other words, the "telekinesis" paragraph IS NOT found in this book.....which I have a copy of from a long time back. In fact, the book never uses the word telekinesis at all in its print. Even more to the point, Max Freedom Long's book is concerned with the Huna religion of Hawaii.........Huna was a religion practiced in the 1900 century by shamen who could supposedly perform miracles. The copyright page of this book reveals that Max Freedom Long himself published this book......it was never published by a publishing house. It was printed in the USA by Book Graphics, Inc., of Marina del Rey, Ca. My point in bringing this obscure point up at all is as follows: Red Bank Films produced this film.......their unauthorized use of Max Freedom Long's book in the movie along with their corruption of the material contained in the book (the telekinesis wording is NOT a part of the book) should have been challenged by someone or agency that oversees the use of material without authorization. I will assume that Red Bank looked into this and seeing that Max Long himself published this book they thought that no one (including his living relatives or the inheritor of his writings and research at that time) would step forward and demand an accounting of their use of his material. Long died in 1971 and he left the rights to his collection of Huna research papers to Dollie Ware who set up a Max Freedom Long library in Huston, Tx. When Ms. Long died in 2012, the collection was sold off to various private collectors, some private and some public. In my opinion, it would have been much better for the producer to make up a fictitious "title" of a book relating to telekinesis so that using the "made up" wording relating to telekinesis would have been entirely appropriate. Hollywood often uses material which it has no permission to and at the same time damaging the reputation of real scholars such as Max Freedom Long.

[@jgizzy]

Who's the statue on the left?

[@stevencochran5301]

My first fore into phys ed lavatories is still my Uncle's favorite vicinity.

[@Thunder-acro]

I am very biased toward anything based on Carrie. Thank you Mrs. King for saving my most favorite book ever!

[@missiridia2337]

It almost seems like he's done these so many times cause he talks like he's actually reading it from one of his books. Funny and interesting guy

[@angelaobrien8792]

My dad loves Stephen King. I buy him his new books. He has a lot of his old books

[@planetX15]

Do you like him?

[@stewl5081]

Oeschner, Mass and NY.

[@Gurl-5150]

One of the funniest guys ever to be so good at scaring people!

[@unrealityproduction]

@890slay I'm not gonna get into this conversation, or argument, but i just thought i'd say: IT is a story, and within are several ideas, hidden meanings whether or not King intended it that way or not. I agree about what you said about parents not truly "seeing", the magic disappearing, but i don't think IT has any singular, overall meaning other than IT being a result of all those subliminal meanings into just a story (the BEST book ever, literally, in my opinion!)

[@davidarmitage289]

“I’m here on the lords business Mrs Snell” lmao

[@doorswhofan]

What really sucks is that those men's magazine markets for short horror fiction don't exist anymore. They may have been considered ghetto markets in their day, but they gave writers like King a place to get started and earn some decent pay. Average was like $250 per story which would be like $1,400 in todays dollars. Even just selling 3-4 stories a year was a nice supplement to the day job. But those days are long gone. :-(

[@julieshez387]

I so feel sad for poor carrie with those bully jerks they are savages teenage brats is what they do in schools as dumb kids but thier parents seem to fail to disciplined them or the kids just do thier own way out of free-will behind thier parent's backs Carrie was just a innocent girl who had done nothing wrong to deserve all of this, the bullies did that to her with the pig's blood bucket at the prom to make her murderous to kill them as really satisfying her revenge With fair justice as good karma on the young barbarians it was never truly her fault in the first place despite of she committed murder. The bullies had gone too far than ever before they should know the price they have to pay or they could have just real apologize to her to show her they'll make things right be more like Sue snell before things get out of hand and it's too late that they're all dead going to hell for thier actions. Good thing stephan king Wrote this story be aware of school bullies out there by using anti-bully awareness to make a good difference for everyone since the tragic dark story of Carrie. 🥺😟☹️🙁

[@narcovice]

beautiful silk jacket

[@WILLSTERROCKSTER]

4:46 Can anyone else here "Where is my mind?" by the Pixies?

[@voro8561]

2018 anyone?

[@BartholomewMahershalalhashbaz]

MoonlightAdventure Goth 2019anyone

[@mtd1089]

2020 anyone?

[@mehmetokay7073]

"Tommy said to Carrie; 'You're beautiful.'" "And she was. "

[@LilMisssmartypants.922]

i was gonna let him get to 3rd base that night...but sadly it was not to be😮‍💨

[@Stargaze79]

The future lies ahead...

[@DEP717]

Well, it also related to bullying but featured a female protagonist and female antagonists.

[@ChocoholicZombie]

It's got one now, but it wasn't me, lol.

[@oladeproductions8514]

Thanks for posting...$2500 to $400K! Trash to treasure... Treasure to Treasury... A writer`s dream come true

[@taffycool]

@spotdathief That's my favorite too :)

[@sheydoll]

I just watched an interview w/King on Conan & he said it was a Rexall Pharmacy?? I guess those little things change in time!?

[@MikeRoberts1964]

It could have been both, as the store could have been a franchise.

[@andrewbrendan1579]

That's correct about the franchise.There was a Rexall drugstore in the Indiana town where I grew up but the store was called Pielmeir's after the name of the owner/s.

[@ChocoholicZombie]

Um, there's one now :(

[@oldschool3424]

And the rest was history

[@madahad9]

My favorite Stephen King is still 'Salem's Lot. I wish he'd write a sequel to that. I am wading slowly into Doctor Sleep right now. It is not exactly holding me riveted to the pages. It reminds me why I fell away as a reader back in the 80's somewhere: he tends to overwrite and stuff too many unneeded details in instead of steamlining it, the tension becomes diluted as it plods on. I think it was after It that I stopped reading him. I reread Dead Zone a few years ago and enjoyed it, movie better

[@avieus]

The indisputable King

[@arkhamsrazor7075]

I didn't realize how much of himself he actually put into Jack Torrance until I heard this.

[@lyricalstyles]

Hes a funny guy. Does he ever write comedy?

[@spotdathief]

@BubbaFartinski really?

[@stewl5081]

Art Williams, Mass and NY. My grandmother lived alone for 30 years. Not legal.

[@crowsister1]

Loving. This... he is awesome... rwal people thats how i relate

[@Phoenix1062]

I have an idea for a horror story. I wish I knew him personally because he could help me blow it out of the waters! He is the master when it comes to all things creepy!

[@MorbidBliss22]

All hail Mr. King’s Queen: Tabitha!

[@daisyhinojosa23]

stephen king is funny :D

[@TheJameslehr]

How about Stephen hearing that Carrie was playing on a double bill with the Redd Foxx movie NORMAN, IS THAT YOU? at a predominantly black movie theater? He talked about this on the Whoopi Goldberg Show.

[@rnw2739]

Would that be 'The View'?

[@TheJameslehr]

my goodness! Didn't think any young kids read books besides Harry Potter or Twilight.

[@HereIsWisdom1318]

2:00--No one argues AGAINST healthcare.

[@NataliVeronicaGermanotta]

🎱🤫 Definitely 🐝 BRAVER

[@TheEuzkatroika]

carrie....

[@calebgamer1720]

Talk about getting your big break, sells his book for $400,000

[@priceyblackwinter2338]

Publisher: “Hey, here’s $200,000” Any sane human: *buys a car or a house* Stephen King: “Hey all the stores are closed, I think I’ll just buy my wife a hair dryer”

[@RallyTheTally]

I always disliked his politics and some of his books, but it really does seem like he cares about his family.

[@Albeit_Jordan]

I wonder if Stephen King reads Sutter Cane.

[@julieshez387]

I'm a Christian but I really don't want to end up like Carrie's poor insane too strict bad mother Margaret White as a religious fanatic she is in case who treated her daughter badly although she choose to believe living a better life with God is need to serve worship him in order to be blessed and saved by Jesus So she and Carrie can live in heaven joyfully in peace but I honestly don't think she's doing well though like Carrie tried to be a good daughter to her for Margaret she doesn't understand her so other morals of the novel is be careful with religion even if some of us trying to believe the existence of God doing his rules and laws but none of us could be perfect christains for him, the only faith believing is that God is merciful loving along with he's powerful to discipline us as a father to his children he'll be on our side if we love him and keeping our loyalty to Him still repent from our sins and do good moral values on earth. It doesn't matter if we're perfectly religious we'll just be ourselves and do our best in God's world we live in, beat darkness with light of christ not by works but by grace through faith even Margaret should have know about it such pity on her.

[@ethannicholas]

Go to your closet and pray for forgiveness.

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

Ethan Del Prado It took me a minute to get this :P

[@alejandrosaucedo7562]

health care. nope

[@JeffersonDinedAlone]

Guys, forget all of the artsy-fartsy observations that your utterly-full-of-shit college professors tried to shove down your throats. Just take it for what it is; an entertaining story. That's all it needs to be.

[@BartHartful]

Obviously, you have never written a book...no offense ;-)

[@JH-qy8no]

I love his books and I totally disagree with his politics. He seems to write beyond politics and gets to the heart of man which is the true horror.