Peter Straub on Stephen King.

The BBC asked, "Is Stephen King a great writer?", and Straub said:

In the late ‘70s, the question was really rhetorical, because the answer was understood to be ‘no’. A writer with such immediate access to the imagination of so many readers, a lot of them unsophisticated, could not presume to seriousness. Now, his readership is even larger and more inclusive and the similarities between King and Dickens, always visible to those who cared for King's work, have become all but unavoidable. Both are novelists of vast popularity and enormous bibliographies, both are beloved writers with a pronounced taste for the morbid and grotesque, both display a deep interest in the underclass.

Also, according to Harold Bloom, I'm not a serious reader because I enjoy Faulkner, James, AND King. OKAY, FINE. I CAN LIVE WITH THAT.