Quotes from Harlan Coben

An hour before his world exploded like a ripe tomato under a stiletto heel, Myron bit into a fresh pastry that tasted suspiciously like urinal cake.

Painful memories didn't just ease back in-they shoved the door open hard, all of them and all at once

America was waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that one-third of our people will kill one-third of our people while one-third of our people watches.

Here is the truth about tragedy: it's good for the soul.

There should have been a dark whisper in the wind. Or maybe a deep chill in the bone. Something. An ethereal song only Elizabeth or I could hear. A tightness in the air. Some textbook premonition. There are misfortunes we almost expect in life—what happened to my parents, for example—and then there are other dark moments, moments of sudden violence that alter everything. There was my life before the tragedy. There is my life now. The two have very little in common.

He truly believed that no one could love him, and no matter who you are, that hurts. It made you insecure. It made you want to hide and build fences

Kids don't come with instructions. We all mess up. Raising a child is pure impromptu.

She wore a killer smile, absolutely devastating. It was a smile that could twist a man's heart. A man could fall in love just being on the receiving end of that smile. A man would want to see the smile every day and be the one who could make it appear. He would want it all to himself.

The sun was now in its death throes, bruising the sky a coiling purple and orange.

My great-grandfather, Dad often told us, saved his best wines for special occasions. He was killed when the Nazis invaded Paris. The Nazis ended up drinking his wine. Lesson: you never wait. When I was growing up, we used only the good plates. We used the best linens. We drank out of Waterford crystal. When my father died, his wine cellar was nearly empty.

You can only be strong for so long.

Did tragedy cause fissures, open them wider--or did tragedy merely turn on the light so you could see the fissure that had always been there?

Daisy wore a clingy black dress with a neckline so deep it could tutor philosophy.

Natalie had what I'd call a slow beauty, the kind you don't really notice at first and then it knocks you back and grows on you and she gets more beautiful every time you see her and then you can't believe that you ever thought that she was anything less than completely stunning. Whenever I saw her, my entire body reacted, as though it were the first time or better.

It was more about understanding that you could give it your all, give yourself the best chances, but control is an illusion.

Why do humans never really learn the lessons we are supposed to? What is in our makeup, in fact, that draws us to that which should sicken us?

Watch out for people who belong in your past. Don't let 'em back in your life.

Dreams never die. Sometimes you think they are dead, but they are just hibernating lie some old bear. And, if the dream has been hibernating for a long time, that bear is going to wake up grumpy and hungry

but every home is its own island with its own secrets.

Cherish and take care of what you value. Happiness is fragile. Appreciate every moment and do everything you can to protect it.

Man plans and God laughs

With everyone else, you put up this facade so you can hide the crud and make them like you. But with real friends, you show them the crud-and that makes them care. When we get rid of the facade, we connect more.

We talked about how most Americans used to be in the middle, relatively speaking. That's how America kept its balance all those years. The left and the right were close enough to have disagreements but not hate." "Okay." "That world is gone, Gavin, and so it will now be easy to destroy the social order. The middle has become complacent. They are smart, but they are lazy. They see the grays. They get the other side. Extremists, on the other hand, see only black

A Spoon swoon, if you will.