Tell No One Quotes

“Memories, you see, hurt. The good ones most of all.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“I wish i could tell you that through the tragedy i mined some undiscovered, life-altering absolute that i could pass on to you.I didn't.The cliches apply-people are what count,life is precious,materialism is over rated, and the little things matter,live in the moment-and i can repeat them to you ad nauseam.you might listen, but you won't internalize.Tragedy hammers it hm.Tragedy etches into your soul.You might not be happier.But you will be better.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“I kept hearing that "better to have loved and lost" bullshit. Another falsehood. Trust me, it is not better. Don't show me paradise and then burn it down”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Sex is for anyone; the aftermath is for lovers.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Here is the truth about tragedy: it's good for the soul.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“The sun was now in its death throes, bruising the sky a coiling purple and orange.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“There should have been a dark whisper in the wind. Or maybe a deep chill in the bone. Something. An ethereal song only Elizabeth or I could hear. A tightness in the air. Some textbook premonition. There are misfortunes we almost expect in life—what happened to my parents, for example—and then there are other dark moments, moments of sudden violence that alter everything. There was my life before the tragedy. There is my life now. The two have very little in common.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Some things we pack away, stick in the back of the closet, never expect to see again ― but we can't quite make ourselves discard them. Like dreams, I guess.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Few things, I assure you, will devastate like the might-have-beens.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Well-meaning friends ' often the worst kind ' handed me the usual clich+!s, and so I feel in a pretty good position to warn you: Just offer your deepest condolences. Don't tell me I'm young. Don't tell me it'll get better. Don't tell me she's in a better place. Don't tell me it's part of some divine plan. Don't tell me that I was lucky to have known such a love. Every one of those platitudes pissed me off. They made me ' and this is going to sound uncharitable ' stare at the idiot and wonder why he or she still breathed while my Elizabeth rotted.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“I blinked and the images were gone. But I remembered how the laugh and the howl and the splash would ripple and echo in the stillness of our lake, and I wondered if ripples and echoes like those ever fully die away, if somewhere in the woods my father's joyful yelps still bounced quietly off the trees. Silly thought, but there you go.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“You could trust nature but not man”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Still, death is a great teacher. It’s just too harsh.
I wish I could tell you that through the tragedy I mined some undiscovered, life-altering absolute that I could pass on to you. I didn’t. The clichés apply—people are what count, life is precious, materialism is overrated, the little things matter, live in the moment—and I can repeat them to you ad nauseam. You might listen, but you won’t internalize. Tragedy hammers it home. Tragedy etches it onto your soul. You might not be happier. But you will be better.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Children view their parents as both intrepid and omnipotent.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“When I got home, I poured myself one last quick drink. I took a deep sip and let the warm liquor travel to destinations well known. Yes, I drink. But I’m not a drunk. That’s not denial. I know I flirt with being an alcoholic. I also know that flirting with alcoholism is about as safe as flirting with a mobster’s underage daughter. But so far, the flirting hasn’t led to coupling. I’m smart enough to know that might not last. Chloe”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“I'd always hated running. Born-again joggers described how they got addicted to the rapture of running, how they achieved a nirvana known as a runner's high. Right. I'd always firmly believed that--much like the high of auto-asphyxiation--the bliss came more from a lack of oxygen to the brain than any sort of endorphin rush.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“looked me straight in the eye and spoke an indisputable truth: "You don't know my life.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Todavía oigo aquella sandez del «mejor haber amado y haber perdido». Otra mentira más. Créanme si les digo que no es mejor. Que no me enseñen el paraíso para cerrarlo después.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“When we stepped out of the car, I heard the ghosts. Lots of them here, too many, swirling and battling for my attention. My father’s won out. The lake was hold-your-breath still, but I swore I could still hear Dad’s howl of delight as he cannonballed off the dock, his knees pressed tightly against his chest, his smile just south of sane, the upcoming splash a virtual tidal wave in the eyes of his only son. Dad liked to land near my sunbathing mother’s raft. She’d scold him, but she couldn’t hide the laugh. I blinked and the images were gone. But I remembered how the laugh and the howl and the splash would ripple and echo in the stillness of our lake, and I wondered if ripples and echoes like those ever fully die away, if somewhere in the woods my father’s joyful yelps still bounced quietly off the trees.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“... racial profiling. We all do it. If you cross the street to avoid a gang of black teens, you’re racial profiling; if you don’t cross because you’re afraid you’ll look like a racist, you’re racial profiling; if you see the gang and think nothing whatsoever, you’re from some planet I’ve never visited.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“You could trust nature but not man.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Too often, show muscles meant useless muscles.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“I'm sorry," my dead wife mouthed.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“There are some places the mind should not go; it gets steered there anyway.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“So I did some research,” she went on. “The good thing about being a famous model is that you can call anyone and they’ll talk to you. So I called this illusionist I’d seen on Broadway a couple of years ago. He heard the story and then he laughed. I said what’s so funny. He asked me a question: Did this guru do this after dinner? I was surprised. What the hell could that have to do with it? But I said yes, how did you know? He asked if we had coffee. Again I said yes. Did he take his black? One more time I said yes.” Shauna was smiling now. “Do you know how he did it, Beck?” I shook my head. “No clue.” “When he passed the card to Wendy, it went over his coffee cup. Black coffee, Beck. It reflects like a mirror. That’s how he saw what I’d written. It was just a dumb parlor trick.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“They say it takes a long time to comprehend a tragedy. You’re numb. You can’t adequately accept the grim reality.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Confusion helps. Confusion leads to lengthy reconstruction and clarification and exposition and several other "ions.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Intuition was often a way of cutting corners, a nifty technique of replacing hard evidence and facts with something far more elusive and capricious. The worst investigators Carlson knew relied on so-called intuition.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Three days ago, I was a dedicated doctor sleepwalking through my own life. Since then, I had seen a ghost, gotten emails from the dead, had become a suspect in not one but two murders, was on the run from the law, had assaulted a police officer, and had enlisted the aid of a known dug dealer.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One

“Grief can be inordinately selfish.”
― Harlan Coben, Tell No One