Harlan Coben Quotes

I remember that the first time I looked at my son, of course I felt love. But I think the first feeling was not love: it was fear. Someone is needing me. If something happens to him, what am I going to do? Maybe I won't survive if something happens to him? The fear was as big as the love.

For all that being a parent is normal statistically, it's not normal psychologically. It produces some of the most extreme emotions you'll ever have.

The first time you hold your baby in your arms, I mean, a sense of strength and love washes over you. It washed over me and I never thought that possible.

It is always fragile, being a parent.

Sometimes it's a bizarre, fairly cold, and horrifying thing to be a parent.

The joy and happiness it gives you or the emotions you go through when you hold your child in your arms for the first time are indescribable! I really thought that there was going be this moment when a ray of light from heaven would come pouring in, background music would start playing with angels singing, but none of that happens!

If you are a good person, you will probably be a good father. Try not to worry too much. If you don't feel apprehensive just before your first child arrives, you are abnormal. Though catastrophe doesn't come as often in childbirth as it did a few generations ago, we naturally fear it.

This baby comes out of you and there's no handbook. They hand you this child and say, 'Don't kill it. Feed it, clothe it and shelter it.' I never knew what that kind of love was. I remember looking at my daughter for the first time and wondering if that's the way my father looked at me.

I think, along with the great joy and excitement of having a child, it seems to be that the common themes are also a lot of doubt and fear and uncertainty about being a parent - and about how you might not live up to those expectations.

I'm terrified for what is in store for me as a parent!

All my labours were very different, but that moment when you look in your child's eyes for the first time and that feeling of love wooshes into every part of your being was the same for all of them.

Along with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying

When you hold your baby in your arms the first time, and you think of all the things you can say and do to influence him, it's a tremendous responsibility. What you do with him can influence not only him, but everyone he meets and not for a day or a month or a year but for time and eternity.

It's terrifying, that unconditional love you have for a child. I still wonder if she really came from me, from my womb. It's a miracle. I don't understand it. I live it very intensely.

Children change you. You have this overwhelming feeling of responsibility, of love - they're everything. They're yours. You know when you're cuddling them, cradling them, and you can smell their hair. I love that.

When you have a child, as anyone knows who has them, that's basically all you want to talk about.

My worst moments as a parent have been much like my greatest moments as a parent: the product of complete and perfect accident.

It's like you have a child and you think, 'Everything that I've done up until this point is insignificant in comparison to being a father.' It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I'm not thinking about me that much anymore. Every time I look, I'm looking for my daughter, you know? If I'm in a store, I'm looking at baby clothes. It's so much cuter to find things for her than to find things for me.

Before my son was born, I use to tell people that I was looking forward to no longer being the star of my own movie; then Harry came along, and it was like, 'Whoa, I'm really not!'

I love motherhood. I certainly wasn't aware of any mothering instincts until I had babies. I wasn't a person who desperately wanted to have kids, but you don't get it until you do it, and, suddenly, this nurturing instinct exists.

There are no words that can describe the euphoria you feel when your baby recognizes you for the first time and smiles.

Parenthood and having kids puts you in touch with a whole other sort of sensitivity which is nothing but good. You feel more than you ever felt. You feel that vulnerability, but at the same time you wouldn't trade it for anything.

I remember looking at my daughter for the first time and wondering if that's the way my father looked at me. I could cry, because she's everything to me. I feel so blessed to be taught so much by her.

It's the most amazing feeling to hold your child in your arms.