Harlan Coben Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• The actual writing time is a lot shorter than the thinking time.

  Harlan Coben

  Writing, Thinking

• I wrote seven Myron Bolitar novels in a row, and I never want to write a Myron book where he just solves a crime. Every one of them I want to be personal, and I want him to grow and change. The problem with that is, it makes the series limited, you can't write a series where a guy is always going through some kind of crisis.

  Harlan Coben

  Book, Writing, Guy

• What I love about the thriller form is that it makes you write a story. You can't get lost in your own genius, which is a dangerous place for writers. You don't want to ever get complacent. If a book starts going too well, I usually know there's a problem. I need to struggle. I need that self-doubt. I need to think it's not the best thing ever.

  Harlan Coben

  Struggle, Book, Writing

• 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

  Real, Writing, Hands

• I love stories. 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

  Writing, Bores You, Fire

• The readers are the ones who let us live our dreams. I try to write books which are really compelling - that you'd take on vacation and rather than going out, you'd read in your hotel room because you had to find out what happened. Hopefully that's what readers are responding to.

  Harlan Coben

  Dream, Book, Writing

• Sometimes even when the book is over I dont know whos good and whos bad. Its really more interesting, I think, to write about gray characters than it is to write about black and white.

  Harlan Coben

  Book, Writing, Character

• What I want to do is tell stories about normal people in the American suburbs. I don't write the book where it's a conspiracy reaching the prime minister; I don't write the book with the big serial killer who lops off heads. My setting is a very placid pool of suburbia, family life. And within that I can make pretty big splashes.

  Harlan Coben

  Book, Writing, People

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

  Harlan Coben

  Writing, Kate, Absolutes

• Writing my first book, I think in hindsight I went into it saying, 'It's gonna sell.' I was earning enough to scrape by sometime around a book or two before 'Tell No One.' I moved up from $50,000 to $75,000, then $150,000 for each book. I had never thought I would be doing anything else. I had enough encouragement.

  Harlan Coben

  Encouragement, Book, Writing

• I like to go out and write. So I'll often go to a Starbucks or a local coffee bar, and I'll sit there and I'll write. I can write pretty much anywhere.

  Harlan Coben

  Coffee, Writing, Bars

• 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

  Writing, Trying, Mountain

  "Harlan Coben on "Fool Me Once"". Interview with Sara Nelson, www.omnivoracious.com. March 31, 2016.

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

  Harlan Coben

  Writing, Littles, Busy

• The most annoying and full- of- crap thing a writer says is, I write only for myself, I don't care if anyone reads it. A writer without a reader doesn't exist.

  Harlan Coben

  Writing, Care, Annoying

• I would never write a memoir, because it would be too boring.

  Harlan Coben

  Writing, Would Be, Boring

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

  Harlan Coben

  Writing, Voice, Should

• My house has too many distractions. There's the email. There's checking my Amazon ranking. I know I'm the only author who's ever done that, ever. There's the fax. Too many distractions. I like to go out and write.

  Harlan Coben

  Writing, House, Email

• 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

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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