Harlan Coben Writing Quotes

#1. For the fiction writer himself the whole story is the meaning, because it is an experience, not an abstraction.

Flannery O'Connor

#2. Writing a novel in general is like trying to reach a mountain top you'll never quite reach - so you try again and maybe get a little closer.

Harlan Coben

#3. We ask our brain to stop worrying, stop obsessing, stop dreaming the same scary dreams again and again. But our brain rarely takes requests.

Dan Poblocki

#4. I actually fall for guys when they're a bit all over me!

Mollie King

#5. Not everyone can look past an insult and continue to work with the person who slights them

Jean Johnson

#6. The one thing I never questioned about my mother was whether she loved me.

Lorna Luft

#7. I'm scared to death of you, but for a completely different reason.

Alexandra Bracken

#8. I bite the skin on the side of my fingernails.

Sienna Miller

#9. It's a little weird that they keep walking around sniffing things. Think I'll do that eventually?"
"I have no idea. At least they aren't chewing on the furniture.

Nichole Chase

#10. I'm not very happy idle. There's always this voice in my head that says, 'I should be writing.'

Harlan Coben

#11. 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

#12. He believed that rank without power was a sham.

Barbara W. Tuchman

#13. Our freedom of speech is freedom or death,
We got to fight the powers that be!

Chuck D

#14. When I'm writing, what I pretend subconsciously is that we're cavemen, we're sitting around the fire, and I'm telling you stories. If I bore you, you're probably going to pick up a big club and hit me over the head.

Harlan Coben

#15. The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time. I don't do too many notes. I keep it mostly in my head. I usually start writing a new book around January, and it's due October 1.

Harlan Coben

#16. 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

#17. Kate Atkinson is an absolute must-read. I love everything she writes.

Harlan Coben

#18. Writing isn't about the process. It is about creating. The joy comes not from the process but from the creation.

Harlan Coben

#19. Hunt's wife, after all, had died in questionable circumstances,

Benjamin Black

#20. I think that the American people should rest assured and be assured that every federal agency that has a role to play in this terrorism is working overtime now, taking every necessary action to protect our great citizens.

Hugh Shelton

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

Harlan Coben

#22. You cannot underestimate the value of luck in success in life. And I've really learned to appreciate that.

Azim Premji

#23. Don't try so hard to be the penetrating observer. Writing is, after all, a makeshift thing.

Anonymous

#24. Let me back up a little and tell you why I prefer writing to real life: You can rewrite. A novel, for example, can be cleaned up, altered, trimmed, improved. Life, on the other hand, is one big messy rough draft.

Harlan Coben

#25. Outlining is not writing. Coming up with ideas is not writing. Researching is not writing. Creating characters is not writing. Only writing is writing.

Harlan Coben