Harlan Coben Quotes

23 Sourced Quotes

There is a certain fate to the universe and a certain randomness.

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

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

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
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
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
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
Trust is like that. You can break it for a good reason. But it still remains broken.

Harlan Coben
Hope is cruel. Hope reminds me of what almost was. Hope makes the physical ache return.

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
Painful memories didn't just ease back in-they shoved the door open hard, all of them and all at once

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
The ugliest truth, in the end, was still better than the prettiest of lies.

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

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
You can't have an up without a down, a right without a left, a back without a front - or a happy without a sad.

Harlan Coben