Stephen Colbert [00:00:01]
Steven interviews. Steven. I'm here with the author of the new novel, Billy Summers. Mr. Stephen King. At one point, the character Billy billy Summers here says writing is also a kind of war. The story is what you carry, and every time you add to it, it gets heavier. All over the world, there are half finished books because the work got too heavy. Have you, Stephen King, experienced that? Heaviness yeah. 

Stephen King [00:00:53]
The worst case, I wrote a book called The Stand is very salient. It was about a mutating flu virus. And any similarities to what's going on now? Just too close for comfort. But I got about halfway through that book and I got these people to Boulder, Colorado. And by that time, I had this huge cast of characters who were 20 or 25, and I thought, I don't know what I'm going to do with these people. They've come to rest in this one place. And the book stayed on a shelf for about three weeks while I just went for long walks and tried to figure out what to do with the story. And the worst thing was I was thinking, what if this thing never gets done? You talk about heavy. That was pretty heavy. And then I remembered something that Raymond Chandler said. He said, when you don't know what to do next, bring on the man with a gun. And I thought, well, what if somebody blows up about half of these troublesome people? I can deal with the ones that are left. And that's what I did. 

Stephen Colbert [00:02:08]
All right, your fans all have their favorite Stephen King books. Do you have they do, or else they wouldn't be fans. What do you have your favorite what are your top what are your top five books or short stories of Stephen King? Stephen King. 

Stephen King [00:02:24]
Well, I think maybe the write this. 

Stephen Colbert [00:02:27]
Down, carve this in stone. 

Stephen King [00:02:28]
My favorite short story would be called Survivor Type, which was about a physician who gets stranded on a little island and he's smuggling heroin and he's starving, so he eats himself piece by piece. 

Stephen Colbert [00:02:44]
I like it for the whole family. Okay. 

Stephen King [00:02:47]
One that is family friendly. Yeah, that could be a Disney cartoon. 

Stephen Colbert [00:02:51]
Sure. 

Stephen King [00:02:51]
I like Misery, the novel misery a lot. That was kind of fun. It was a fun book to write. This is like Led Zeppelin concert, sort of like play Free Bird anymore. 

Stephen Colbert [00:03:07]
That's two. 

Stephen King [00:03:09]
I like leasing Story very much. It's a series now streaming on Apple Plus. And I held on to that for a long time, The Stand. And there was one called Stand by Me, the Body and Billy Summers, the third one. 

Stephen Colbert [00:03:27]
Yeah. And Billy Summers. The book. Billy Summers. One of his top five is available now. The man is Stephen King, everybody. Steven, thank you so much for being here.