3 December 2020 Harlan Coben Losing my parents was the most crushing thing that ever happened to me. I lost my dad when I was 26, and it changed my life entirely.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben Hope can be the most wonderful thing in the world or it can crush your heart like an eggshell.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben Tragedy is a hell of a teacher. It’s much too strict, but it’s a hell of a teacher.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben No characters in ‘Stay Close,’ including the leads, are black and white. I want them to be grey. I think that makes for a much more interesting reading experience, something that will stay with you a little bit longer.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben I don’t necessarily love the sports per se, I love the stories behind them. Also in a kind of perverse way I like to study what it does to us, why we care so much. It’s caring about something that’s utterly meaningless.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben If I’m not writing well, I’m not happy. If I’m not spending enough time with my family, I’m not happy. If I’m not connecting to friends or if I don’t work out enough… You get the point. Everything has to be balanced. Nothing should be an extreme.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben I try to stress to my children that buying something never leads to true happiness.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben I can write pretty much anywhere if you give me time and some quiet. The home is not usually the best place because I have four children. It’s usually pandemonium around here!
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben When I was seventeen, I worked as a counsellor at a co-ed sleep-away camp for eight weeks. I loved it but it could be harrowing – it was far too much responsibility for someone my age.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben ‘Caught’ is a novel of forgiveness, and the past and the present – who should be and who shouldn’t be forgiven. None of my books are ever just about thrills, or it won’t work.
3 December 2020 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.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben 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.
3 December 2020 Harlan Coben Frankly I’m fairly boring or fairly busy. Between writing and family, I have little time for anything else.
