Quotes from Harlan Coben

She made everything around us crackle with surprise

Gee, Cingle, that's pretty subtle." She spread her arms. "Subtlety ended for me the day I hit puberty.

He and his friends weren't heavily into the dope scene, but he had hung out at his buddy Weed's house—clue for parents: If your kid is nicknamed "Weed," it probably has little to do with legitimate gardening—when his folks were out of town. Mike

I don't do the wait-and-worry wife well." "Nice alliteration. The two D's and then all those W's.

Casual affairs never interested him. Every girl he met was gauged as a potential life partner, a soul mate, an undying love, as though every relationship should be a Carpenters song.

Maya tried to throw this new information into the mix. When she added it all up—Claire, Joe, the nanny cam, the phone, the strip club, the rest—Maya considered all the possibilities and came up with bubkes. Nothing made sense.

Mom squeezed her daughter's hand. "Don't make me face what I don't need to face," she said. "It's over. You can't change the past. But see, you can shape it with your memories. I get to choose which ones I keep, not you." Kat

Genius comes from the unusual

Part of the human condition is that we all think that we are uniquely complex while everyone else is somewhat simpler to read. That is not true, of course. We all have our own dreams and hopes and wants and lust and heartaches. We all have our own brand of crazy.

The press could not help themselves. They attacked like ravenous relatives around a buffet table.

There's this song I love," Lex said. "The lyric says, 'Your heart is like a parachute.' Do you know why?" "I think the line is about a mind being like a parachute—it only functions when it's open." "No, I know that line. This one is a better, 'Your heart is like a parachute—it only opens when you fall.' " He smiled. "Good, right?" "I guess." "We

Worry about what you can control. If you can't control it, let it go.

Ali's daughter, Erin, was matriculating at Arizona State. Ali, Erin, and Jack were flying out for the week to get the freshman settled.

KNEW opening that red door would destroy my life. Yes, that sounds melodramatic and full of foreboding and I'm not big on either, and true, there was nothing menacing about the red door. In fact, the door was beyond ordinary, wood and fourpaneled, the kind of door you see standing guard in front of three out of every four suburban homes, with faded paint and a knocker at chest level no one ever used and a faux brass knob. But

In most relationships, one partner has more control than the other. It was just the natural order of things. Perfect balance was a hard thing to find.

Myron had a way with postcoital banter. Terese swung her legs out of bed, rose, and moved toward the window. Myron watched. He liked the way she moved naked, panther-like, all coiled and toned and confident. The apartment was perched above Central Park on the West Side. Terese looked out the window toward the lake and Bow Bridge. If you've ever seen a New York City movie where a couple in love runs across a footbridge, you've seen Bow Bridge. "God

Myron looked toward Erin. Erin had her eyes down. The room went quiet. He waited. She eventually looked up. She looked scared and small and young. He wanted to take her in his arms, but man, would that ever be the wrong move. "No," Myron said softly, still holding Erin's gaze. "Not even close to the worst.

You can read all the pro-choice, pro-adoption, pro-life arguments—over the years, Olivia had ad nauseam—but there was one basic truth: Getting pregnant is the ultimate fork in the road. Whatever you choose, you will always wonder about the path not taken.

The teams disappeared into corners for the postgame spiel.

Maya had the strangest dream about the reading of Joe's will. The dream was surreal, one of those through-the-shower-stall nocturnal visions where you really can't remember what was said or where exactly you were or any of that. She only remembered one thing. Joe

Oh, I'm sorry, I forget your name. I keep calling you Hipster Pundit in my head, so can I just call you Chad?

Claire kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear again. "You look happy." "I am," he said. Claire beamed. "Ali's great, isn't she?" "She is.

Homework done?" Adam asked out of habit. It was an oft-repeated parent-child verbal hamster-wheel of a question, never going anywhere, though somehow still mandatory.

I'm Eve. I raised Cain to kill Abel.