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.Harlan Coben
A novel is like a sausage. You might like the final taste but you don't want to see how it was made. Harlan Coben
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. I want to stir the pulse, yes, but also to stir the heart. I hope 'The Woods' does that. Harlan Coben
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. Harlan Coben
There are three things that make a person a writer: inspiration, perspiration and desperation. Harlan Coben
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. Harlan Coben
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'!' Harlan Coben
Frankly I'm fairly boring or fairly busy. Between writing and family, I have little time for anything else. Harlan Coben
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
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. Harlan Coben
And I love the twist. I love to fool you once, I love to fool you twice, and on the very last page, quite often - very last paragraph sometimes - I like to just play with your perception one more time in a way that makes everything that came before just a little bit different. Harlan Coben
I'm thinking of taking up golf, but the idea of spending time with golfers frightens me. Harlan Coben
In real life, coincidences happen all the time. In novels, they are leapt upon with fury. Harlan Coben
Hope can be the most wonderful thing in the world or it can crush your heart like an eggshell. Harlan Coben
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. Harlan Coben
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. Harlan Coben
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. Harlan Coben