The Woods Quotes

“Summer romances cometo an end. That was part of the deal. They are built like certain plants or insects, not able to survive more than one season. I thought we would be different. We were, I guess, but not in the way I thought. I truly believed that we would never let each other go. The young are so dumb.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“You live among this ridiculous wealth and you get lost. You worry about nonsense like spirituality and inner health and satisfaction and relationships.You have no idea what it is like to starve, to watch yourself turn to bones.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“You don't worry about happiness and fulfilment when you're starving.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“The first sip of beer on a hot day is like that first finger-dip when you open a new jar of peanut butter.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“It's not the dead even. They're gone. Nothing you can do about that. It's what's left behind - the echo. These woods you're walking through. There are some old timers who think a sound echoes here forever. Makes sense when you think about it. That Billingham kid. I'm sure he screamed. He screams, it echoes, just bounces back and forth, the sound getting smaller and smaller, but never entirely disappearing. Like a part of his is still calling out, even now.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“I ordered a cheeseburger and a beer from a waitress who looked as though she wanted to be in one of those want-to-get-away? commercials. She called me hon. I love when a waitress calls me hon.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“Don’t Tell Me the Sky’s the Limit When There Are Footprints on the Moon”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“Her voice was polished with a hint of a New England-boarding-school accent that shouted refinement over geographic locale. I was trying not to stare. She saw that and smiled a little. I don't want to sound like some kind of pervert because it wasn't like that. Femal beauty gets to me. I don't think I'm alone in that. It gets to me like a work of art gets to me. It gets to me like a Rembrandt or Michelangelo. It gets to me like night views of Paris or when the sun rises on the Grand Canyon or sets in the turquoise Arizona sky. My thoughts were not illicit. Ther were, I self-rationalized, rather artistic.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“Those who believe that we are anything other than animals are blind. All humans are savages. The ones who are well fed are just lazier. They don't need to kill to get their food. So they dress up and find so-called loftier pursuits that make them believe that they are somehow above it all. Such nonsense. Savages are just hungrier. That was all.
You do horrible things to survive. Anyone who believes that they are above that is delusional.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“A trial is two narratives competing for your attention.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“I kept glancing at her animated face, scrunched up as though imitating an adult. I got hit with that overwhelming feeling. It sneaked up on me. Parents get it from time to time. You are looking at your child and it is an ordinary moment, not like they are onstage or hitting a winning shop, just sitting there, and you look at them and you know that they are your whole life and that moves you and scares you and makes you want to stop time.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“We always seem to be on the eve of destruction. And we always seem to get through it.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“You don't worry about happiness and fulfillment when you're starving.
It is good to remember that.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“horrible instinctive part of you, is almost happy because now you will get a bite-and-a-half-size sliver of bread today instead of just a bite size. Those who believe that we are anything other than animals are blind. All humans are savages. The ones who are well fed are just lazier. They don’t need to kill to get their food. So they dress up and find so-called loftier pursuits that make them believe that they are somehow above it all. Such nonsense. Savages are just hungrier.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“They think my male helplessness is cute. When a single mother does any of those things, she is neglectful and on the receiving end of the superior moms’ scorn.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“We always seem to be on the eve of destruction. And we always seem to get through it.

Maybe we all survive the destruction we have wrought.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“anathema.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“When you are rousted by the police, even with all my experience, you want to please.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“There are some people you know are”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“Female beauty gets to me. I don’t think I’m alone in that. It gets to me like a work of art gets to me.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“You are looking at your child and it is an ordinary moment, not like they are onstage or hitting a winning shot, just sitting there and you look at them and you know that they are your whole life and that moves you and scares you and makes you want to stop time.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“He looks deep into my eyes and I see clarity, or maybe that is one of the things we make ourselves believe at the end. A final false comfort.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“Muse usually gestured like an amphetamine-fueled Sicilian who's nearly gotten clipped by a speeding car.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“even in the flusher years in a country that no longer exists.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“We as a society are big on stereotyping cities the way we do ethnic groups or minorities.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods

“I tried to warn myself. I tried to remember that hope was the cruelest of all mistresses, that it could crush your soul like a Styrofoam cup. But right now I didn’t want to go there. I wanted the hope. I wanted to hold on to it and just let it make me feel light for a little while.”
― Harlan Coben, The Woods