Harlan Coben Quotes

Author Image

Harlan Coben

Profession : Author

Birth : January 4, 1962

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

I once worked as a tour guide in the Costa del Sol of Spain.

Harlan Coben

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

Harlan Coben

I'm thinking of taking up golf, but the idea of spending time with golfers frightens me.

Harlan Coben

If I didn't write, I'd be like a duvet cover; I have no other marketable skills.

Harlan Coben

I remember the days of sitting at book signings, playing with my pen when no one would come, and still I even then thought I was living the dream, because I had a book out.

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

Writing is one of the few activities where quantity will inevitably make quality. The more you write, the better you're going to get at it.

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.

Harlan Coben

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

I'm not very happy idle.

Harlan Coben

Only bad writers think they're good.

Harlan Coben

A writer without a reader doesn't exist.

Harlan Coben

In short, the satisfaction of creating, not necessarily the process, always lifts my heart.

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.

Harlan Coben

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

Harlan Coben

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