Life & Wisdom Quote by Dean Koontz

Koontz isn’t just batting away a moral panic; he’s defending the basic dignity of the audience. The line’s blunt mechanics matter: “Because” sets up a commonsense syllogism, then he undercuts the assumed chain reaction with an almost bored certainty. “They’re not going to go out” is doing cultural work here, insisting that most people possess brakes: conscience, law, community, simple self-control. The choice of “liquor store” is telling, too - not an abstract “crime,” but a familiar, tabloid-ready scenario straight out of the very narratives being blamed. He’s mirroring the fearmongers’ imagery to show how thin it is.

The subtext is a pushback against a recurring American ritual: whenever violence spikes, someone wants to indict entertainment because it’s legible, marketable, and politically safer than indicting guns, poverty, mental health infrastructure, or alienation. Koontz, a writer who profits from suspense and darkness, also has skin in the game; his credibility hinges on the claim that fiction is a container, not a contagion. “It really doesn’t correlate” lands like a deliberately unromantic appeal to evidence, a small, sharp pivot from hand-wringing to empiricism.

Contextually, this sits in decades of post-80s debates over slasher films, video games, and “copycat” crimes, when creators were asked to wear the consequences of society’s failures. Koontz’s intent is clear: protect imaginative freedom by refusing the scapegoat script - and by insisting viewers aren’t as suggestible as critics need them to be.