Stephen King came to Sewickley and we’re still pinching ourselves. Enormous thanks to Susan Hans O’Connor and Penguin Bookshop (and Scribner, King’s publisher) for making this happen.
And thank you, Steve — can we call you Steve now? We’re freaking out! — for being so generous with your time and your Pittsburgh memories. Please, please, please: come back any time!
“Hundreds Descend on Sewickley…”
Below are some highlights from King’s talk, which took place at Sewickley Academy (we’d never been, but have since dubbed it “the Hogwarts of Beaver Street”).
Writers: if you look closely at our photos, you’ll notice that King has two pens in his jeans pocket and one clipped to the inside of his shirt collar!
Stephen King on Pittsburgh: “I saw a lot of Pittsburgh [while filming Creepshow (1982) with George Romero]and I’m not trying to blow smoke here or anything like that, but I came through Pittsburgh with this stereotypical image of the city, that it was going to be steel and grimy and everything, and I found this beautiful green place with lots of parks, surrounded by beautiful towns, and I’m just so glad to be back.”
Thanks to everyone who turned out tonight at Sewickley Academy. You guys were great.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 9, 2016
On Books: “You know, I heard the story about how you guys got tickets, and I’m thinking to myself: this is such an extraordinary thing, that you would do that and go to that effort. And it doesn’t have anything to do with TV, it doesn’t have anything to do with movies, it doesn’t have anything to do with the latest pop group or video games. It’s about books, man.”
The Pittsburgh Story: “I love this area. I love the Pittsburgh area. And so I have to tell my Pittsburgh story. You know, writers are not supposed to be famous. This is a very unnatural situation. You’re not supposed to be looking at me, I’m supposed to be observing your behavior and getting ready to write my next book. And yet, some writers become well known and to me it was a total surprise, and I realized something was happening in Pittsburgh. This was in 1979 [….]
I got sick. You know the Duquesne Incline? It was at the top of that, it was a restaurant… so basically you were stuck there until it was over. I had a salmonella thing going on — I was poisoned, you know? It was halfway through the meal, and I was excusing myself. It was a great restaurant, a class-A restaurant, it had this wonderful big bathroom with tile floors and marble inlays and, like, the world’s oldest washing attendant.
Anyway, this restaurant had everything but doors on the stalls, but I was way past caring about that [….] It was a low point — and the guy, the washing attendant, turns around and starts toward me. He reaches into his pocket and brings out a pad and a pen. When he said, ‘Didn’t I see you on AM Pittsburgh this morning, you’re Stephen King, can I have your autograph?’ That is the only autograph I ever gave while sitting on the john. That was my first encounter with fame and it sort of gave me a perspective from the bottom up.”
On Politics: “[The Dead Zone] is about this paranormal guy named Johnny Smith who has precognition, and it was a very unbelievable book in a way because he runs into this crazy politician who sort of rises up to become a national icon by appealing to people’s basest instincts. Very irritated with the press, and we know there could never be a politician like that in America. We know that, but of course, my job is writing horror stories. So I wrote one about the worst goddamn political candidate I could think of…”
On Fear: “Of course, you’re laughing now because you’re all together and we’re safe. But sooner or later you’re going to be alone.”
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