Quotesia
Home
Authors
Popular authors
William Cullen Bryant
Henry Moore
Thomas Fuller
Virgil Thomson
Judy Garland
Georg C. Lichtenberg
All authors
Today's birthdays
1821 - Charles Baudelaire
1930 - Nathaniel Branden
1926 - Hugh Hefner
1981 - Moran Atias
1933 - Gian Maria Volonte
1963 - Marc Jacobs
Today's birthdays
Popular professions
Architect
Saint
Philosopher
Celebrity
Comedian
Astronaut
All professions
Authors by letter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
All authors
Topics
Top Quotes
Quotesia
Favorite authors
Harlan Coben Quotes
Harlan Coben Quotes
Harlan Coben
American
Author
Born:
Jan 4
,
1962
Life
Me
People
Time
Writing
You
Related authors:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Frederick Douglass
Helen Keller
Henry David Thoreau
Joyce Meyer
Mark Twain
Og Mandino
Zig Ziglar
This is the price you pay for having a great father. You get the wonder, the joy, the tender moments - and you get the tears at the end, too.
Harlan Coben
Great
You
Joy
Tears
Father
Pay
Too
Father's Day
Having
Tender
Price
End
Wonder
Get
Moments
Being a parent is not for the faint of heart. I may joke about knowing fear, but the fact is, the first time I ever knew real fear was the day Charlotte, my first child, was born. Suddenly there is someone in the world you care about more than anything.
Harlan Coben
Time
Day
You
Heart
World
Fear
Care
Joke
First
Born
About
Charlotte
Someone
Parent
More
More Than Anything
Fact
Knew
First Child
Faint
Knowing
First Time
Real
Than
Child
May
Being
Anything
Suddenly
Ever
The muse is not an angelic voice that sits on your shoulder and sings sweetly. The muse is the most annoying whine. The muse isn't hard to find, just hard to like - she follows you everywhere, tapping you on the shoulder, demanding that you stop doing whatever else you might be doing and pay attention to her.
Harlan Coben
You
Demanding
Whatever
Pay
Pay Attention
Else
Everywhere
Find
Angelic
Follows
Voice
Attention
Like
Most
Annoying
She
Doing
Sings
Tapping
Just
Stop
Whine
Might
Shoulder
Your
Hard
Sweetly
Her
Muse
More than once, I've wished my real life had a delete key.
Harlan Coben
Life
Key
Real Life
Once
Delete
More
Had
Wished
Real
Than
You can't have an up without a down, a right without a left, a back without a front - or a happy without a sad.
Harlan Coben
Sad
You
Happy
Down
Back
Without
Left
Up
Front
Right
Let me back up a little and tell you why I prefer writing to real life: You can rewrite. A novel, for example, can be cleaned up, altered, trimmed, improved. Life, on the other hand, is one big messy rough draft.
Harlan Coben
Life
Me
You
Writing
Example
Big
Real Life
Other
Back
Back Up
Tell
Cleaned
For Example
Altered
Messy
Real
Hand
Up
Improved
Rewrite
Little
Prefer
Novel
Rough
Why
Draft
The state of New Jersey is really two places - terrible cities and wonderful suburbs. I live in the suburbs, the final battleground of the American dream, where people get married and have kids and try to scratch out a happy life for themselves. It's very romantic in that way, but a bit naive. I like to play with that in my work.
Harlan Coben
Life
Work
Happy
People
Wonderful
Try
Happy Life
Live
Final
State
Way
Bit
Kids
Battleground
Out
Cities
Married
Dream
Naive
New
Like
Terrible
New Jersey
Very
Get
American
Get Married
Scratch
American Dream
Where
Romantic
Places
Suburbs
Themselves
Really
Jersey
Play
Two
And I love the twist. I love to fool you once, I love to fool you twice, and on the very last page, quite often - very last paragraph sometimes - I like to just play with your perception one more time in a way that makes everything that came before just a little bit different.
Harlan Coben
Love
Time
You
Fool
Sometimes
Perception
Before
Everything
Once
Way
Bit
Paragraph
More
Like
Makes
Came
Very
Quite
Often
Just
Just A Little Bit
Different
Little
Little Bit
Page
Your
Twice
Play
Twist
Last
No characters in 'Stay Close,' including the leads, are black and white. I want them to be grey. I think that makes for a much more interesting reading experience, something that will stay with you a little bit longer.
Harlan Coben
You
Experience
Will
Black
Black And White
Reading
White
Think
Bit
Characters
Stay
Something
More
Longer
Leads
Makes
Close
Want
Grey
Interesting
Little
Little Bit
Them
Much
Including
Writing my first book, I think in hindsight I went into it saying, 'It's gonna sell.' I was earning enough to scrape by sometime around a book or two before 'Tell No One.' I moved up from $50,000 to $75,000, then $150,000 for each book. I had never thought I would be doing anything else. I had enough encouragement.
Harlan Coben
Saying
Book
Writing
Thought
First
Before
Encouragement
Think
Enough
Else
Earning
Tell
Would
Would-Be
Sometime
Never
Had
No-One
Had Enough
Hindsight
Around
Doing
Sell
Up
Scrape
Moved
Anything
Anything Else
Gonna
Then
Each
Two
My house has too many distractions. There's the email. There's checking my Amazon ranking. I know I'm the only author who's ever done that, ever. There's the fax. Too many distractions. I like to go out and write.
Harlan Coben
Too
Email
Ranking
Out
Distractions
Fax
Only
Write
Checking
Like
Know
House
Go
Amazon
Author
Done
Many
Ever
I love to fool you once, I love to fool you twice, I love to fool you a third time. And just when you think it's all over, I have what I call that Carrie hand-out-of-the-grave moment. Just when you think it's all over, I'm going to hit you with just one more. I can't help myself.
Harlan Coben
Love
Time
Myself
You
Fool
Think
Once
Carrie
More
Over
Call
Hit
Going
Just
Just One
Help
Moment
Twice
Third
I'd never had money growing up, and it's never been that important to me, except maybe to take our kids on a nice vacation or something like that.
Harlan Coben
Me
Money
Important
Nice
Our
Kids
Something
Except
Take
Never
Had
Like
Been
Up
Maybe
Growing
Growing Up
Vacation
I never bought the excuse of not having time to write. If you really want to do it, you're either going to find those hours or eventually decide not to be a writer.
Harlan Coben
Time
You
Those
Find
Having
Write
Writer
Never
Bought
Excuse
Hours
Going
Want
Decide
Either
Really
Eventually
I'm not very happy idle. There's always this voice in my head that says, 'I should be writing.'
Harlan Coben
Happy
Writing
Says
Voice
Head
Always
Idle
Very
Should
I always think the insecurity is going to go away, but it's always there. Only bad writers think they're good.
Harlan Coben
Good
Insecurity
Go Away
Think
Bad
Only
Writers
Always
Go
Going
Away
Children learn much more from how you act than from what you tell them. There are times this worries me - we parents are rarely the role models we want to be. True for life. True for driving.
Harlan Coben
Life
Me
You
Be True
Parents
Worries
Tell
Rarely
More
Driving
True
Learn
How
Times
Than
Role
Role Models
Models
Children
Want
Them
Much
Act
Life may not always fall into neat chapters, and you may not always get the satisfying ending you're looking for, but sometimes a good explanation is all the rewrite you need.
Harlan Coben
Life
Good
You
Sometimes
Ending
Looking
Fall
Chapters
Always
Get
May
Rewrite
Explanation
Satisfying
Neat
Need
You know, people call mystery novels or thrillers 'puzzles.' I never understood that, because when I buy a puzzle, I already know what it is. It's on the box. And even if I don't, if it's a 5,000-piece puzzle of the 'Mona Lisa', it's not like I put the last piece in and go, 'I had no idea it's the 'Mona Lisa'!'
Harlan Coben
Buy
You
People
No Idea
Thrillers
Mystery
Never
Had
Put
Idea
Puzzle
Puzzles
Like
Know
Piece
Call
Box
Because
Understood
Go
Even
Mona
Novels
Last
'Caught' is a novel of forgiveness, and the past and the present - who should be and who shouldn't be forgiven. None of my books are ever just about thrills, or it won't work.
Harlan Coben
Work
Forgiveness
Past
Books
About
Thrills
None
Caught
Forgiven
Just
Should
Who
Novel
Ever
Present
I would never write a memoir, because it would be too boring.
Harlan Coben
Too
Memoir
Would
Would-Be
Boring
Write
Never
Because
If I didn't write, I'd be like a duvet cover; I have no other marketable skills. Clearly I'm not meant to do anything else.
Harlan Coben
Other
Else
Write
Clearly
Like
Cover
Anything
Anything Else
Meant
Skills
There are three things that make a person a writer: inspiration, perspiration and desperation.
Harlan Coben
Desperation
Three
Inspiration
Writer
Make
Person
Perspiration
Things
Outlining is not writing. Coming up with ideas is not writing. Researching is not writing. Creating characters is not writing. Only writing is writing.
Harlan Coben
Writing
Characters
Only
Outlining
Ideas
Coming
Up
Creating
Researching
If I don't write, I hate myself. Simple as that. My life is out of balance.
Harlan Coben
Life
Myself
Balance
Hate
Simple
My Life
Out
Write
We're called New Jersey but we're actually the suburbs of New York.
Harlan Coben
New
New Jersey
York
New York
Suburbs
Jersey
Actually
Load more quotes
No more Harlan Coben quotes
Haven't find the right quote? Try quotes from authors related to Harlan Coben.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Frederick Douglass
Helen Keller
Henry David Thoreau