Stephen King, the Master of Horror, is a prolific writer who has sold more than 350 million books worldwide, seen most of his works turned into movies and television programs, and won many prestigious awards, such as the O. Henry short story prize and the National Medal of Arts for his contributions to literature. But through all of his successes, Stephen King has remained a bit of a mystery. He continues to live in his home state of Maine and avoids the limelight as much as possible, yet the renowned author has many interesting quirks and things that most people probably don’t know about him.
10. He Is Afraid Of The Number 13
Even though he has written more horror novels than many people will even read in their entire lifetime, King has real life fears just like the rest of us. One of his biggest fears concerns the number 13, which many people consider to be unlucky, and which is an actual condition known as “Triskaidekaphobia”. It sounds crazy, but phobias are irrational by nature, and King takes this fear very seriously. He once explained his issues with the number in this way: “The number 13 never fails to trace that old icy finger up and down my spine. When I’m writing, I’ll never stop work if the page number is 13 or a multiple of 13; I’ll just keep on typing till I get to a safe number. I always take the last two steps on my back stairs as one, making 13 into 12. There were, after all, 13 steps on the English gallows up until 1900 or so. When I’m reading, I won’t stop on page 94, 193 or 382, since the sums of these numbers add up to 13.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/stephen-king-shawshank-redemption_n_5877810.html Source: huffingtonpost.com