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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

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Harlan Coben
Age: 62
Born: 1962
Born: January 4
Author
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Newark
New Jersey
Things
Else
Obviously
Anything
Fit
Self
Pressure
Perspiration
Real
Writer
Inflicted
Work
Inspiration
Desperation
Really
Fear
Drives
Make
Jobs
Third
Always
Three
Thirds

More quotes by Harlan Coben

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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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I would never write a memoir, because it would be too boring.
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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.
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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.
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The book I always say that influenced me, subconsciously, because at the time I didn't know I wanted to be a writer, was William Goldman's 'Marathon Man.' That was the first adult thriller that I loved. I read it when I was 15 or so, when my father gave it to me.
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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.
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...desperation can toy with you and if you give desperation any wiggle room, it will find alternative answers
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The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time.
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Frankly I'm fairly boring or fairly busy. Between writing and family, I have little time for anything else.
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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?
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Painful memories didn't just ease back in-they shoved the door open hard, all of them and all at once
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Kate Atkinson is an absolute must-read. I love everything she writes.
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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.
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This was a place where tattoos outnumbered teeth.
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Hope is cruel. Hope reminds me of what almost was. Hope makes the physical ache return.
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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).
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Sometimes the loudest cries for help are silent.
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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.
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In short, the satisfaction of creating, not necessarily the process, always lifts my heart.
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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