Harlan Coben Quotes
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The readers are the ones who let us live our dreams. I try to write books which are really compelling - that you'd take on vacation and rather than going out, you'd read in your hotel room because you had to find out what happened. Hopefully that's what readers are responding to.
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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'!'
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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.
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I can write pretty much anywhere if you give me time and some quiet. The home is not usually the best place because I have four children. It's usually pandemonium around here!
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I've never chased the dollar, I've always chased the reader's heart. I love having more readers. The more people who read it, the more thrilled I am.
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Tragedy is a hell of a teacher. It's much too strict, but it's a hell of a teacher.
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I once worked as a tour guide in the Costa del Sol of Spain.
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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.
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I'm a little bit of a control freak.
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I am very lucky that I get to tell stories for a living. I love being able to grab people's attention, to keep them turning the pages, to make them stay awake all night.
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Make no mistake, adolescence is a war. No one gets out unscathed.
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In real life, coincidences happen all the time. In novels, they are leapt upon with fury.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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A novel is like a sausage. You might like the final taste but you don't want to see how it was made.
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We're called New Jersey but we're actually the suburbs of New York.
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I love to make even villains people you can relate to. When you find out who did it, I think you almost like the person, which is not easy to do.
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That's what a good crime novelist - any good novelist - should do with you: play with your perceptions while showing you everything in plain sight.
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I'm not very happy idle.
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I remember the days of sitting at book signings, playing with my pen when no one would come, and still I even then thought I was living the dream, because I had a book out.
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I'm not a fan of self-help books - how can something be 'self-help' if the book itself is purportedly helping you?
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I would never write a memoir, because it would be too boring.
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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.