Harlan Coben Quotes

I write what I'd like to read and just hope that, along the way, others might like to read them, too.

I write to be read. I'm quite direct about that. I'm not writing to thrill colleagues or to impress the professors at the University of Iowa; that's not my goal.

I love cinema and creating new things, but essentially, I am creating all this because I want people to see it.

If you aren't already a songwriter, try it. When you can say what you want to say, in your own words, it's incredibly easy to show an audience who you are.

What I am after, above all, is expression.

Readers would email me and say, 'Please write a novel about so-and-so,' but it has to come from yourself and not so much from your readership.

You have to transmit to them what it's like being in the theater. And it has to come from somewhere inside you and not by being like what somebody did last year.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.

It is comparatively easy to become a writer; staying a writer, resisting formulaic work, generating one's own creativity - that's a much tougher matter.

I'm always gonna be all over my CD the most, of course. My talent is my talent. I ain't really tripping off no ego; I just like to make good music with good people.

No matter how many times people say it - 'Oh, I'm just writing this for myself' 'Oh, I'm just doing this for myself' - nobody's doing it for themselves! You're doing it for an audience. So whether I'm performing or writing a book or playing music, it's definitely to be put out there and to be received in some way, definitely.

I have never written for an audience. On the other hand I do not write merely to please myself.

There's actually nothing interesting about me except what I write.

I love to write.

I don't try to show off technology in my work. The technology is a means to tell stories, so I think conversations about my work can be had by very large audiences.

I've never considered myself a lyricist, but I have stuff to say.

Whenever I have tried to write for other people, that's when my writing has failed, when nobody wanted to read it or buy it. But it's only when I've been able to write a story that makes me excited, only then have other people wanted to read it.

I think it's an okay thing to express yourself.

I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.

Years ago, I carved out an identity, and it has always been about having a voice to tell people about stuff I love.

Art is essentially communication. It doesn't exist in a vacuum. That's why people make art, so other people can relate to it.

I don't know what else I would do. I love entertaining people, I love communicating, I love an audience. I'm a real artist, right from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head.

I love to write and to get to know the people who are listening.

You have to keep your audience in your mind; if you're writing stuff that you know nobody's going to care about then you should rethink what you're doing!

I started writing to please myself, a story I would like to read, and that is still true.