Harlan Coben

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

I'd never had money growing up, and it's never been that important to me, except maybe to take our kids on a nice vacation or something like that.

The preparation for building a series of thrillers based on a single character is kind of like the preparation for becoming a parent: The best part is the idea - wink, wink.

You can't have an up without a down, a right without a left, a back without a front - or a happy without a sad.

A writer without a reader doesn't exist.

Only bad writers think they're good.

I'm not very happy idle.

I like to see the difference between good and evil as kind of like the foul line at a baseball game. It's very thin, it's made of something very flimsy like lime, and if you cross it, it really starts to blur where fair becomes foul and foul becomes fair.

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.

I always think the insecurity is going to go away, but it's always there. Only bad writers think they're good.

And I love the twist. I love to fool you once, I love to fool you twice, and on the very last page, quite often - very last paragraph sometimes - I like to just play with your perception one more time in a way that makes everything that came before just a little bit different.

I love to make even villains people you can relate to. When you find out who did it, I think you almost like the person, which is not easy to do.