61+ Harlan Coben Quotes On Mystery, Suspense And Thrillers

Harlan Coben is an American author of mystery novels and thrillers. He is best known for his popular Myron Bolitar series, which has been adapted into a television series. His books often explore the idea of family and relationships, and often contain unexpected twists and turns. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Harlan Coben on love, mystery, suspense.

Top 10 Harlan Coben Quotes

1. You bring your own weather to the picnic.
2. The ugliest truth, in the end, was still better than the prettiest of lies.
3. ..."better to have loved and lost" bullshit. Don't show me paradise and then burn it down.
4. Sometimes the loudest cries for help are silent.
5. Memories, you see, hurt. The good ones most of all.
6. Im 48 years old, not a kid anymore by any definition, but here is a universal truth that every adult at some point will realize: We are all always 17 years old, waiting for our lives to begin.
7. This was a place where tattoos outnumbered teeth.
8. Writing a novel in general is like trying to reach a mountain top you'll never quite reach - so you try again and maybe get a little closer.
9. Painful memories didn't just ease back in-they shoved the door open hard, all of them and all at once
10. I like to go out and write. So I'll often go to a Starbucks or a local coffee bar, and I'll sit there and I'll write. I can write pretty much anywhere.

Harlan Coben Short Quotes

• I still try to make the "next" book my "best" book. I want to grip and move you in unexpected ways.
• In short, the satisfaction of creating, not necessarily the process, always lifts my heart.
• Only bad writers think they're good.
• Hope is cruel. Hope reminds me of what almost was. Hope makes the physical ache return.
• Amazing what we can self-rationalize when we really want something
• Trust is like that. You can break it for a good reason. But it still remains broken.
• There is a certain fate to the universe and a certain randomness.
• I'm not very happy idle. There's always this voice in my head that says, 'I should be writing.
• "So basically, that entire theory is blown to hell."Not basically," Win corrected. "Entirely."
• Man plans. God laughs.

Harlan Coben Quotes About Love

It was one lesson he never forgot.You don't sit back when you or a loved one is being assaulted.And you don't act like the goverment with their "proportional responses" and all that nonsense.If someone hurts you,mercy and pity must be put aside,You eliminate the enemy.You scorch the earth. — Harlan Coben

William Goldman's Marathon Man was a novel that taught me about suspense. I was maybe 16 years old when I read it and I remember thinking, "You could put a gun to my head and I wouldn't put this book down." I loved that feeling - and want to give it others. — Harlan Coben

That’s the problem with falling in love. It makes you start talking like a bad country song — Harlan Coben

Sure, on a larger scale, it was healthy to have people out there you cared about more than yourself. She knew that. But then there was the abject fear you would lose it. They say possessions own you. Not so. Loved ones own you. You are forever held hostage once you care so much. — Harlan Coben

Years fly by, but the heart stays in the same place. — Harlan Coben

I don't necessarily love the sports per se, I love the stories behind them. Also in a kind of perverse way I like to study what it does to us, why we care so much. It's caring about something that's utterly meaningless. — Harlan Coben

Kate Atkinson is an absolute must-read. I love everything she writes. — Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben Famous Quotes And Sayings

There's always a price you pay when you lie. Once you introduce a lie into a relationship, even for the best of intentions, it is always there. Whenever you’re with that person again, that lie is in the room too. It sits on your shoulder. Good lie or bad lie, it's in the room with you forever now. It's your constant companion. — Harlan Coben

A dancer on break approached him. She smiled. Each tooth was angled in a different direction, as if her mouth were the masterwork of a mad orthodontist. "Hi," she said. "Hi." "You're really cute." "I don't have any money." She spun and walked away. Ah, romance. — Harlan Coben

Summer romances cometo an end. That was part of the deal. They are built like certain plants or insects, not able to survive more than one season. I thought we would be different. We were, I guess, but not in the way I thought. I truly believed that we would never let each other go. The young are so dumb. — Harlan Coben

In the end, we know what makes us happy. We also know what makes us unhappy. That's the irony. We know and yet we still mess it up. That's part of the human condition, no, and why we need to work on it. — Harlan Coben

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

A trial is two narratives competing for your attention. — Harlan Coben

Part of the human condition is that we all think that we are uniquely complex while everyone else is somewhat simpler to read. That is not true, of course. We all have our own dreams and hopes and wants and lust and heartaches. We all have our own brand of crazy — Harlan Coben

There are few times that I feel more at peace, more in tune, more Zen, if you will, than when I force myself to unplug. — Harlan Coben

No, I don’t live in heartache. I don’t cry myself to sleep or any of that. I am, I tell myself, over it. But I do feel a void, icky as that sounds. And—like it or not—I still think about her every single day. — Harlan Coben

The first sip of beer on a hot day is like that first finger-dip when you open a new jar of peanut butter. — Harlan Coben

An hour before his world exploded like a ripe tomato under a stiletto heel, Myron bit into a fresh pastry that tasted suspiciously like urinal cake. — Harlan Coben

You want this so badly—this second chance, this chance at real redemption—that you can’t see the truth. — Harlan Coben

For a short time, I hated them. But when you think about it, what good does that do?It takes so much to hold on to hate—you lose your grip on what's important, you know? — Harlan Coben

Genius is a curse. That's how I look at it. Some think that the brilliant comprehend the universe in a way the rest of us can't. They see the world how it truly is—and that reality is so horrible the lose their minds. Clarity leads to insanity. — Harlan Coben

Getting into a fight with a popular senior. Pissing off a school teacher and the local chief of police. Hanging with two major-league losers." She slapped my back. "Welcome to high school. — Harlan Coben

Its funny how you can let yourself forget for seconds, how even in the heat of the horrible, you can have moments when you fool yourself into thinking it might all be okay — Harlan Coben

I wrote seven Myron Bolitar novels in a row, and I never want to write a Myron book where he just solves a crime. Every one of them I want to be personal, and I want him to grow and change. The problem with that is, it makes the series limited, you can't write a series where a guy is always going through some kind of crisis. — Harlan Coben

There is the old catch-22 line that a mentally unstable person can't know, as per their illness, that they are unstable. But that was wrong. You can and do have the insight to see your own crazy. — Harlan Coben

The most annoying and full- of- crap thing a writer says is, I write only for myself, I don't care if anyone reads it. A writer without a reader doesn't exist. — Harlan Coben

But sometimes, maybe most times, it isn't that clear. It is dark and you are near the edge of a cliff, but you're moving slowly, not sure which direction you're heading in. Your steps are tentative but they are still blind in the night. You don't realize how close you are to the edge, how the soft earth could give away, how you could just slip a bit and suddenly plunge into the dark. — Harlan Coben

The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time. — Harlan Coben

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

We all think that we are uniquely complex, that no one can see what we are thinking - yet we also believe that we have the rare ability to read others. This fascinates me at the moment. — Harlan Coben

I always say three things make a writer: inspiration, obviously; perspiration, doing the work. But the third is desperation. I'm not really fit for anything else, or to have a real job. That fear drives me. The pressure has always been self inflicted. — Harlan Coben

So basically your plan is to flail about helplessly. — Harlan Coben

Kids don’t do what their parents say-they do what they see their parents do. So who was to blame here? — Harlan Coben

...desperation can toy with you and if you give desperation any wiggle room, it will find alternative answers — Harlan Coben

If I had, say, a tall, amateur male lead living on the campus of a rural college (Six Years), the next book might feature a short, cop who lives in the heart of Manhattan (Missing You). — Harlan Coben

You don't worry about happiness and fulfilment when you're starving. — Harlan Coben

I'm also inspired by anything that I consider great. It makes me want to raise my game too - Hitchcock movies, Hopper paintings, Springsteen concerts. — Harlan Coben

I would rather raise certain topics and maybe let you ruminate on them. I'm not big on answering them. — Harlan Coben

What I love about the thriller form is that it makes you write a story. You can't get lost in your own genius, which is a dangerous place for writers. You don't want to ever get complacent. If a book starts going too well, I usually know there's a problem. I need to struggle. I need that self-doubt. I need to think it's not the best thing ever. — Harlan Coben

Sometimes even when the book is over I dont know whos good and whos bad. Its really more interesting, I think, to write about gray characters than it is to write about black and white. — Harlan Coben

I used to wonder why Lucy liked those songs so much. You know what I mean? She sits in the dark and listens and cries. Music does that to her...I didn't understand for a long time. But I do now. The sad songs are a safe hurt. It's a diversion. It's controlled. And maybe it helps you imagine that real pain will be like that. But it's not. Lucy knows that, of course. You can't prepare for real pain. You just have to let it rip you apart. — Harlan Coben

Life Lessons by Harlan Coben

1. Harlan Coben's work emphasizes the importance of being aware of the consequences of our actions and the power of the past to shape our present.
2. Through his stories, Coben encourages us to take responsibility for our choices and to be mindful of the potential for secrets and lies to have long-term impacts.
3. He also reminds us that we should never take the people we love for granted and to always be open to the possibility of redemption.