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" I'm not a fan of self-help books - how can something be 'self-help' if the book itself is purportedly helping you? "
Harlan Coben
Something
Books
Book
Related Quotes:
" 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
You
Life
Good
" I once worked as a tour guide in the Costa del Sol of Spain. "
Harlan Coben
Tour
Worked
Guide
" 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. "
Harlan Coben
Dream
Live
Life
" 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
Good
Blessings
Living
" We're called New Jersey but we're actually the suburbs of New York. "
Harlan Coben
New Jersey
York
New
" 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
Love
Hope
I Am
" Only bad writers think they're good. "
Harlan Coben
Only
Bad
Good
" The readers are the ones who let us live our dreams. I try to write books which are really compelling - that you'd take on vacation and rather than going out, you'd read in your hotel room because you had to find out what happened. Hopefully that's what readers are responding to. "
Harlan Coben
Vacation
Hotel
Live
" Make no mistake, adolescence is a war. No one gets out unscathed. "
Harlan Coben
Make
Mistake
Out
" Tragedy is a hell of a teacher. It's much too strict, but it's a hell of a teacher. "
Harlan Coben
Strict
Tragedy
Much
" Sometimes even when the book is over I don't know who's good and who's bad. It's really more interesting, I think, to write about gray characters than it is to write about black and white. "
Harlan Coben
Good
Think
Know
" A writer without a reader doesn't exist. "
Harlan Coben
Exist
Writer
Without
" More than once, I've wished my real life had a delete key. "
Harlan Coben
Life
Delete
Key
" Writing isn't about the process. It is about creating. The joy comes not from the process but from the creation. "
Harlan Coben
Writing
Process
Joy
" Outlining is not writing. Coming up with ideas is not writing. Researching is not writing. Creating characters is not writing. Only writing is writing. "
Harlan Coben
Creating
Up
Only
" I always think the insecurity is going to go away, but it's always there. Only bad writers think they're good. "
Harlan Coben
Insecurity
Go
Always
" 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. "
Harlan Coben
Way
Care
Caring
" 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
Happy
Back
You
" 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
Fear
Work
Self
" Frankly I'm fairly boring or fairly busy. Between writing and family, I have little time for anything else. "
Harlan Coben
Boring
Busy
Writing
" I wrote seven Myron Bolitar novels in a row, and I never want to write a Myron book where he just solves a crime. Every one of them I want to be personal, and I want him to grow and change. The problem with that is, it makes the series limited, you can't write a series where a guy is always going through some kind of crisis. "
Harlan Coben
Book
Crime
Change
" 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
Fear
Child
World
" The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time. I don't do too many notes. I keep it mostly in my head. I usually start writing a new book around January, and it's due October 1. "
Harlan Coben
October
Thinking
Book
" In the end, we know what makes us happy. We also know what makes us unhappy. That's the irony. We know and yet we still mess it up. That's part of the human condition, no, and why we need to work on it. "
Harlan Coben
Work
Know
Happy
" I love to fool you once, I love to fool you twice, I love to fool you a third time. And just when you think it's all over, I have what I call that Carrie hand-out-of-the-grave moment. Just when you think it's all over, I'm going to hit you with just one more. I can't help myself. "
Harlan Coben
Fool
Myself
Moment
" I am, after all, a thriller writer. I routinely delve into the darkest chambers of the human heart. I've written about murder, kidnapping, depravity, horror, violence, and disfigurement. "
Harlan Coben
I Am
Darkest
Heart
" If I don't write, I hate myself. Simple as that. My life is out of balance. "
Harlan Coben
Balance
Simple
Hate
" In real life, coincidences happen all the time. In novels, they are leapt upon with fury. "
Harlan Coben
Real
Life
Real Life
" I never bought the excuse of not having time to write. If you really want to do it, you're either going to find those hours or eventually decide not to be a writer. "
Harlan Coben
Find
Never
Going
" 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
Sitting
You
Fire