Harlan Coben Quotes - Page 3

What I want to do is tell stories about normal people in the American suburbs. I don't write the book where it's a conspiracy reaching the prime minister; I don't write the book with the big serial killer who lops off heads. My setting is a very placid pool of suburbia, family life. And within that I can make pretty big splashes.

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.

I still try to make the "next" book my "best" book. I want to grip and move you in unexpected ways.

I am, after all, a thriller writer. I routinely delve into the darkest chambers of the human heart. I've written about murder, kidnapping, depravity, horror, violence, and disfigurement.

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.

"So basically, that entire theory is blown to hell."Not basically," Win corrected. "Entirely."

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.

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.

I pretty much only wear Lilly Pulitzer ties because my best friend owns the company.

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

I love stories. When I'm writing, what I pretend subconsciously is that we're cavemen, we're sitting around the fire, and I'm telling you stories. If I bore you, you're probably going to pick up a big club and hit me over the head.

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

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.

Amazing what we can self-rationalize when we really want something

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.

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.

A trial is two narratives competing for your attention.

I'm a little bit of a control freak.

I'm not very happy idle. There's always this voice in my head that says, 'I should be writing.

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.

Frankly I'm fairly boring or fairly busy. Between writing and family, I have little time for anything else.

I'm the Jerry Lewis of crime fiction.

In short, the satisfaction of creating, not necessarily the process, always lifts my heart.

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.

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'!'