Harlan Coben

“Frankly I'm fairly boring or fairly busy. Between writing and family, I have little time for anything else.”

— 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.”

— 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

“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

“Make no mistake, adolescence is a war. No one gets out unscathed.”

— 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

“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.”

— 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.”

— Harlan Coben

“Hope can be the most wonderful thing in the world or it can crush your heart like an eggshell.”

— Harlan Coben

“What I want to do is tell stories about normal people in the American suburbs. I don't write the book where it's a conspiracy reaching the prime minister I don't write the book with the big serial killer who lops off heads. My setting is a very placid pool of suburbia, family life. And within that I can make pretty big splashes.”

— 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

“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.”

— Harlan Coben

“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

“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!”

— 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.”

— 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

“I try to stress to my children that buying something never leads to true happiness.”

— 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.”

— Harlan Coben

“Tragedy is a hell of a teacher. It's much too strict, but it's a hell of a teacher.”

— Harlan Coben

“I'm not a big sports fan.”

— Harlan Coben