X

Sort by

Quote length

Sentiment

Change font

Change background

Harlan Coben Inspirational Quotes (61)

Page 1 of 3
Filter & Style
Image
I'm the Jerry Lewis of crime fiction.
Harlan Coben
Image
Sometimes the loudest cries for help are silent.
Harlan Coben
Image
Painful memories didn't just ease back in-they shoved the door open hard, all of them and all at once
Harlan Coben
Image
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
Image
The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time.
Harlan Coben
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
There are three things that make a person a writer: inspiration, perspiration and desperation.
Harlan Coben
Image
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
Image
When you like something and you're pretty good at it and you can make a living doing it, you don't ask why. You just count your blessings and go with it.
Harlan Coben
Image
In short, the satisfaction of creating, not necessarily the process, always lifts my heart.
Harlan Coben
Image
Hope is cruel. Hope reminds me of what almost was. Hope makes the physical ache return.
Harlan Coben
Image
...desperation can toy with you and if you give desperation any wiggle room, it will find alternative answers
Harlan Coben
Image
You bring your own weather to the picnic.
Harlan Coben
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I like to see the difference between good and evil as kind of like the foul line at a baseball game. It's very thin, it's made of something very flimsy like lime, and if you cross it, it really starts to blur where fair becomes foul and foul becomes fair.
Harlan Coben
Image
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.
Harlan Coben
Image
Kate Atkinson is an absolute must-read. I love everything she writes.
Harlan Coben
Image
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.
Harlan Coben
Previous
Next