Quotes from Harlan Coben

During the car ride Myron asked for details. Kitty sat up front next to him. In the back, Mickey ignored them. He stared out the window, white iPod earbuds in place—playing the part of a petulant teenager, which, Myron surmised, he was. By

sunlight when Maya exited

Why do your teams never win?" Marcia had asked him. "I draft the kids based on two criteria." "That being?" "How nice the father—and how hot the mom." She

Marcia started up the stairs to the second floor. The lights were dimmer on this level. Her footsteps clacked and echoed against the stillness of a building that during the day knew so much life and energy. There is no place more surreal, more hollow and empty, than a school corridor at night

I went back to Windy's place. We took it slow until we took it fast. It wasn't full-on bliss, but it was awfully sweet. It was around 3:00 A.M. when Windy walked me to the door. Not sure what to say, I stupidly went with "Uh, thank you." "Uh, you're welcome?" We kissed lightly on the lips. It wasn't something that would last, we both knew that, but it was a small, quick delight, and sometimes in this world, there was nothing wrong with that. I

Time was doing the in 'n' out thing. Probably a second, maybe two, had passed since Karen's execution. That was all. And now, with no time to think or plan, I was nearly on him. But

aren't ready to be specific." Tia said, "Adam wouldn't steal Mike's prescription pads. He knows better." Hester just gave her flat eyes. Tia realized how naïve her protestations sounded. "You

Some people held grudges; Esperanza clutched them and tied them around her waist and used cement and Krazy glue to hold them steady.

None of us are truly contained. Death ripples, echoes.

Kat held back the sigh but allowed herself the eye roll.

Grief rarely attacks from the front. It prefers to sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Myron's eyes swept the room and landed on a reading chair that doubled as a dressing dummy. Greg's clothes were strewn over one arm and the back. Normal enough, Myron guessed—neater than Myron, in fact, though that wasn't saying much. But looking again, he noticed something a tad strange on the other arm of the chair. Two articles of clothing. A white blouse and a gray skirt. Myron

Emily pinned him with her eyes. "Custody battles are war without the Geneva Accords," she said. "Greg got nasty. I got nasty back. You do whatever you have to in order to win.

The minister wore a light blue, three-piece suit, an obvious hairpiece, and a gold wedding band. No watch. No other jewelry. Nothing ostentatious. His face was gentle, trusting—the face of a dear uncle or friendly neighbor. His bright smile, one of his biggest assets, was firmly set. "Thank

But still, even with wimps like Erik, there was one line you don't cross. You cross it, you never come back. It had to do with your children. A man protects his family at all costs. No matter what the sacrifice. You will take any hit. You will go to the ends of the earth and risk everything to keep them from harm. You don't back away. Never. Not until your dying breath. Someone

My father has gotten old, an obvious observation alas, but we are often told how aging is a gradual process. Perhaps that's true, but in my father's case, it was more like a plummet off a cliff. For a long time, my father clung to that beautiful edge—healthy, strong, vibrant—but once he slipped, his descent was steep and sudden.

There a coffee bar near here?" she asked. "A Starbucks," Myron said. "I'll drive." "I don't want to go with you, Emily." She gave him the smile. "Lost my charms, have I?" "They lost their effect on me a long time ago." Half lie. She

He hadn't been inside this six-story pachyderm in seventeen years, but if this stomach lining could talk.… He let the smile hit his face. Why not? Why the hell not? He had tortured himself long enough.

Why do we insist that there can only be one "us," one life that makes us up in our entirety? Why can't we have more than one identity? And why do we have to destroy one life in order to create another? We claim to long for the "well rounded," the Renaissance man or woman inside all of us, yet our only variety is cosmetic. In reality we do all we can to smother that spirit out, to make us conform, to define us as one thing and one thing only.

The damage those men had done. Surprise pregnancies, blackmail, extortion, even murder—all covered up with the mighty dollar.

AS MATT CROSSED into Pennsylvania in the white Isuzu, he was amazed at how much of what he'd thought of as useless information he'd retained from prison. Of course, prison is not the great education in all things crime many thought it was. You have to keep in mind that the inhabitants had all been, well, caught, and thus any claimed expertise had something of a shadow cast over it. He

You stay in the surreal world of so-called higher learning. You are comfortable there. You have very little reason to leave it.

exception of last

Why don't we all have a seat?" he said. "Who the hell are you?" Chick asked. He turned his cringingly gentle smile toward Chick. "I'm Lionel." Chick