In real life, coincidences happen all the time. In novels, they are leapt upon with fury.
Harlan CobenRead
Life may not always fall into neat chapters, and you may not always get the satisfying ending you're looking for, but sometimes a good explanation is all the rewrite you need.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is unpredictable, and while we may desire perfect resolutions, sometimes understanding our experiences is sufficient.
Harlan Coben's quote reflects the often chaotic nature of life, suggesting that we might not always experience the tidy resolutions or happy endings we desire. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of gaining insights and explanations from our experiences, which can provide comfort and clarity even when outcomes are less than ideal.
Themes
LifeUnderstandingExperiencesResolutionChaos
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech, to emphasize the importance of resilience in the face of life's unpredictability.
More from Harlan Coben
All quotes →The ugliest truth, in the end, was still better than the prettiest of lies.
Harlan CobenRead
When you like something and you're pretty good at it and you can make a living doing it, you don't ask why. You just count your blessings and go with it.
Harlan CobenRead
No, I don’t live in heartache. I don’t cry myself to sleep or any of that. I am, I tell myself, over it. But I do feel a void, icky as that sounds. And—like it or not—I still think about her every single day.
Harlan CobenRead
The most annoying and full- of- crap thing a writer says is, I write only for myself, I don't care if anyone reads it. A writer without a reader doesn't exist.
Harlan CobenRead
There's always a price you pay when you lie. Once you introduce a lie into a relationship, even for the best of intentions, it is always there. Whenever you’re with that person again, that lie is in the room too. It sits on your shoulder. Good lie or bad lie, it's in the room with you forever now. It's your constant companion.
Harlan CobenRead
Similar quotes
We buy books, we go to gyms, we expend a lot of brain power on trying to hold back time, when we should be celebrating the miracle of being here in this world.
Paulo CoelhoRead
Gemma, you see how it is. They've planned our entire lives, from what we shall wear to whom we shall marry and where we shall live. It's one lump of sugar in your tea whether you like it or not and you'd best smile even if you're dying deep inside. We're like pretty horses, and just as on horses, they mean to put blinders on us so we can't look left or right but only straight ahead where they would lead. Please, please, please, Gemma, let's not die inside before we have to.
Libba BrayRead
Children are caterpillars and adults are butterflies. No butterfly ever remembers what it felt like being a caterpillar.
Cornelia FunkeRead
As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom.
Coco ChanelRead
So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop Into thy mother's lap.
John MiltonRead
On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes.
Alan RickmanRead