Darkest Fear Quotes

“An hour before his world exploded like a ripe tomato under a stiletto heel, Myron bit into a fresh pastry that tasted suspiciously like urinal cake.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“You’re not a hypocrite. You aim toward lofty heights. The fact that your arrow cannot always reach them does not make you a hypocrite.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“When a father gives to his son, they both laugh. When a son gives to his father, they both cry.                                       —Yiddish proverb”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“What I mean is, everything is pretty much decided by the time these children leave here and enter kindergarten. I can tell who will be successful and who will fail, who will end up happy and who will end up in prison, and ninety percent of the time I’m right. Maybe Hollywood and video games have an influence, I don’t know.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“You think I should tell Jeremy?” “I think first and foremost you should put aside your Batman complex,” she said. “What the hell does that mean?” “It means you always try a little too hard to be heroic.” “And that’s bad?” “Sometimes it clouds your thinking,” she said. “The heroic thing is not always the right thing.” “Jeremy already has a family. He has a mother and a father—” “He has,” Esperanza interrupted, “a lie.” They”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“Big Cyndi is six-six and on the planetoid side of three hundred pounds, the former intercontinental tag-team wrestling champion with Esperanza, aka Big Chief Mama to Esperanza's Little Pocahontas. Her head was cube shaped and topped with hair spiked to look like the Statue of Liberty on a bad acid trip. She wore more makeup than the cast of Cats, her clothing form-fitted like sausage casing, her scowl the stuff of sumos.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“No, in the Bolitar household, the kitchen was more a gathering place - a Family Room Lite, if you will - than anything related to even the basest of the culinary arts. The round table held magazines and catalogs and congealing white boxes of Chinese takeout. The stove top saw less action than a Merchant-Ivory production. The oven was a prop, strictly for show, like a politician's Bible.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“The young family who'd moved into the Miller home had gotten rid of the Millers' trademark overflowing flower boxes. The new owners of the Davis place had ripped out those wonderful shrubs Bob Davis had worked on every weekend. It all reminded Myron of an invading army ripping down the flags of the conquered.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“piercings,”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“Grief like his breaks your back. You go on, but you always stoop. You smile, but it never really reaches the eyes.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“There was a slump there now, the stoop of the eternally grieving.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“The children’s suffering would be relatively short; their parents’ would be eternal.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“Children are total id. They are perhaps the most naturally vicious creatures on God’s green earth.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“There was a slump there now, the stoop of the eternally grieving. Myron had seen it before. Grief like his breaks your back. You go on, but you always stoop. You smile, but it never really reaches the eyes.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“You drift back and you’re young and you’re safe, safe in that all-encompassing way only a child can be with his father. You”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“If pressed, I’d say ‘unformed.’ Or maybe ‘undeveloped.’ Like a picture you’ve already taken but haven’t processed yet.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“The only thing scarier than Win irrational was when Win made sense.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“Believing in nurture is like believing in God. You might be wrong, but you might as well cover your bases.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“when they told them that they were special and unique.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“He found copies of Stan’s columns.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“When a father gives to his son, they both laugh. When a son gives to his father, they both cry. —Yiddish proverb”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“The whole place had a feel and aura about as warm as a cold sore.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Jeremy said. “You want to hear what I’ve come up with?” Myron swallowed. He looked into the boy’s eyes—serenity, yes, but not through innocence. “Very much,” he said. “You’re not my dad,” he said simply. “I mean, you might be my father. But you’re not my dad. You know what I mean?” Myron managed a nod “But”—Jeremy stopped, looked up, shrugged the shrug of a thirteen-year-old—“but maybe you can still be around.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“At the end of the day, Esperanza stepped into Myron’s office, sat down, and said, “I don’t know much about family values or what makes a happy family. I don’t know the best way to raise a kid or what you have to do to make him happy and well adjusted, whatever the hell ‘well adjusted’ means. I don’t know if it’s best to be an only child or have lots of siblings or be raised by two parents or a single parent or a gay couple or a lesbian couple or an overweight albino. But I know one thing.” Myron looked up at her and waited. “No child could ever be harmed by having you in his life.” Esperanza”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“At the end of the day, Esperanza stepped into Myron’s office, sat down, and said, “I don’t know much about family values or what makes a happy family. I don’t know the best way to raise a kid or what you have to do to make him happy and well adjusted, whatever the hell ‘well adjusted’ means. I don’t know if it’s best to be an only child or have lots of siblings or be raised by two parents or a single parent or a gay couple or a lesbian couple or an overweight albino. But I know one thing.” Myron”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“I still don’t see the relevance of any of this,” Stan said. “Stick with me, I think you will.” Stan shrugged. “Where were we?” Myron asked. “The feds take him to court,” Win said. “Right, thanks, the feds take you to court. You battle back. Then something happens you totally didn’t foresee. The plagiarism charges. For the sake of discussion, we’ll assume the Lex family sent the book to the feds. They wanted to get you off their back—what better way to do that than to ruin your reputation? So what did you do? How did you react to the charges of plagiarism?” Stan kept quiet. Win said, “He disappeared.” “Correct answer,” Myron said. Win smiled and nodded a thank-you into the camera. “You took off,” Myron said to Stan. “Now the question again is why. Several things come to mind. It could have been because you were trying to protect your father. Or it might have been that you were afraid of the Lex family.” “Which would certainly fit Win’s credo,” Stan said. “Self-preservation.” “Right. You were afraid they’d harm you.” “Yes.” Myron treaded gently. “But don’t you see, Stan? We have to think selfishly too. You’re presented with this serious plagiarism charge. What choices did you have? Two really. You could either run off—or you could tell the truth.” Stan said, “I still don’t see your point.” “Stay with me. If you told the truth, you would again look like a louse. Here you’ve been defending the First Amendment and your father and whoops, you get in trouble and you sell them out. No good. You’d still be ruined.” “Damned if you do,” Win said. “Damned if you don’t.” “Right,” Myron said. “So the wise move—the selfish move—was to vanish for a while.” “But I lost everything by vanishing.” “No, Stan, you didn’t.” “How can you say that?” Myron lifted his palms to the skies and grinned. “Look around you.” For the first time, something dark flicked across Stan’s face. Myron saw it. So did Win.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“I still don’t see the relevance of any of this,” Stan said. “Stick with me, I think you will.” Stan shrugged. “Where were we?” Myron asked. “The feds take him to court,” Win said. “Right, thanks, the feds take you to court. You battle back. Then something happens you totally didn’t foresee. The plagiarism charges. For the sake of discussion, we’ll assume the Lex family sent the book to the feds. They wanted to get you off their back—what better way to do that than to ruin your reputation? So what did you do? How did you react to the charges of plagiarism?” Stan kept quiet. Win said, “He disappeared.” “Correct answer,” Myron said. Win”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“Her words didn’t resonate the way the truth does, but Myron didn’t argue the point. He scanned his Client Wall and tried to bring his focus around to Lamar Richardson’s visit. “So the case is closed.” She smiled. “Like legs in a nunnery.”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“You’re okay,” Myron said to him, cupping the boy’s head. “It’s over now.” But it wasn’t. An”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear

“The fed cars poured into the driveway. Brakes squealed. Feds jumped out of their vehicles, took position using the open doors as shields, aimed their weapons. Edwin Gibbs looked confused, panicked, Frankenstein’s monster suddenly surrounded by angry villagers. Stan hurried toward him. The air seemed to thicken, molasses-like. It was hard to move, hard to breathe. Myron could almost feel the officers tense up, fingers itchy, tips touching the cold metal of the trigger. He let go of Greg for a moment and shouted, “You can’t shoot him!” A”
― Harlan Coben, Darkest Fear