Stephen King's On Writing and On Living

Prelude: King opens the round swinging, his "voice" on full display-- "There are no bad dogs... but don't tell that to the parent of a child mauled by a pit bull. He or she is apt to bust your beak."
Chapter 2: Here, King seems to criticize writers like Harper Lee and Thomas Harris for not writing enough, but I tend to lean more toward the argument of writers like Sue Grafton (who, incidentally, has written around twenty novels). Grafton theorizes that all writers enter this world with a set number of stories in their heads, and after they've reached that point, nothing they write will be as meaningful as what they wrote before.
Chapter 5: I like King's idea that the best plots are a by-product of characterization. The Sisters Brothers, one of the best novels of the year and quite possibly a future entry in every major "required reading" list known to man is an artistically written character study, but the plot never suffers. It is, after all, the characters that cause the plot to progress. I also love the Dick and Jane writing excercise he details later in the chapter.
Chapter 7: King uses a passage of an Elmore Leonard novel. I've read several of Leonard's books and it's true: he's one of the best dialogue writers in the business. In fact, King's example is mediocre by Leonard's standards.
Chapter 10: The Stand was one of the first Stephen King books I read, and one of the best. Not quite my favorite of his (that'd be Bag of Bones), but it's up there. It was interesting to read about the struggles he underwent in writing that mammoth of a novel. (Until I read The Winds of War, The Stand was the longest book I had ever read.)

Stephen King's On Writing: Toolbox

Chapter Two: I liked King's paragraph referring to the Grammar Police and his blessing to take grammatic liberties in writing.
Chapter Three: King lends his voice even to the writing oriented section. ("Purge this quisping thought!") I also got a chuckle out of his description of the party game. ("You got a nice butt," he said cheekily.)
Chapter Five: Kings ends the section superbly with a reference to the What Writing Is section. ("We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and magic... but as we move along, you'd do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.")

Stephen King's On Writing: C.V.

Chapter 10: King is easy to relate to, here writing, "(My brother) learned at some point that it was usually possible to get Brother Stevie to join him in the point position when trouble was in the wind." I think that ability to make readers connect with the characters (or in this case himself) is one of the reasons King has become such a power player in the industry.
Chaprer 18: "If you write, someone will try to make you feel lousy about it..." That line had an effect on mr. It's very simple, yet such an insight on harsh critics.
Chapter 23: One of the current buzzwords in the literary industry is "voice", that unimitable trait that all great writers possess. King, love his work or hate it, is one such writer. His down-to-earth voice is apparent in the opening paragraph. In fact, these may be some of the smoothest lines in the entire book
Chapter 27: King is a very funny guy. His parenthetical notes are often hilarious. Here, "Much later, when asked to do the Playboy Interview, I called Hermon the asshole of the world. Hermonites were infuriated by that, and I hereby apologize. Hermon is really no more than the armpit of the world.
Chapter 28: Here King notes an important lesson for any aspiring writer. "...sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing to do is to shovel shit from a sitting position." I think I have a tendency to be over-critical of my writing, and I suspect many other writers are the same way.
Chapter 31: King does an excellent job of depicting his own shock and excitement here.
What Writing Is: I found this particularly interesting. It's a great discussion on the essence of writing. It's also another shining moment for King's voice.