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e4d1b45
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I said everyone looks happy. That was kinda my point. If you judge the world by Facebook, you wonder why so many people take Prozac.
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Harlan Coben |
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bf64de5
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I'd rather read than relax. I'd rather keep the mind engaged.
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Harlan Coben |
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57d045d
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closely--you can't have a front without a back, you can't have an up without a down, and I'm not sure you can have light without dark, purity without sleaze, good without evil.
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Harlan Coben |
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5fee666
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Right now, even though he'd been dead for years, she wanted to collapse in her father's big arms and hear him tell her that everything would be all right. Do we ever outgrow that need?
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Harlan Coben |
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ba2547d
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Hope could be a wonderful thing. But hope could crush you anew every single day. Hope could be the cruelest thing in the world.
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life
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Harlan Coben |
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eae7ca2
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The sad songs are a safe hurt. It's a diversion. It's controlled. And maybe it helps you imagine that real pain will be like that. But it's not. Lucy knows that, of course. You can't prepare for real pain. You just have to let it rip you apart.
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Harlan Coben |
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7b1bdf7
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Telling someone who was clinically depressed, for example, to shake it off and get out of the house was tantamount to telling a man with two broken legs to sprint across the room. That was all well and good in theory, but in practice, the stigma continued.
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Harlan Coben |
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e68439c
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If you give desperation any wiggle room, it will toy with you.
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Harlan Coben |
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4ddac9e
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A voice flat enough to fit under a door crack.
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thriller
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Harlan Coben |
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730c202
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Myron remembered something his father once told him: People have an amazing capacity to mess up their own lives.
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Harlan Coben |
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aecef78
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When you're young you don't get how great it is to be loved unconditionally.
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Harlan Coben |
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c5ece98
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You want this so badly--this second chance, this chance at real redemption--that you can't see the truth." "What"
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Harlan Coben |
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7c58b78
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Here is the truth about tragedy: it's good for the soul.
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Harlan Coben |
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2ebe88c
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He tried to read, but the words swam in front of his eyes in meaningless waves. He put on the television. Nick at Nite, the cultural equivalent of aerosol cheese.
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Harlan Coben |
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79002a7
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God, she loved this kid. Wendy had one of those waves, the ones that sneak up on parents and crush them and make them just want to wrap their arms around their kid and never let him go.
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Harlan Coben |
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01c5d46
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I have learned that human beings are all about incentives
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Harlan Coben |
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d111a47
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There is silence, and then there is rural silence, silence you could feel and reach out and touch, silence with texture and distance.
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Harlan Coben |
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983c5f0
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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 o..
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Harlan Coben |
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b55bd43
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She said that if you hold on to hate, you lose your grip on so much more.
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Harlan Coben |
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dcc0da1
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Myron lay sprawled next to a knee-knockingly gorgeous brunette clad only in a Class-B-felony bikini, a tropical drink sans umbrella in one hand, the aqua clear Caribbean water lapping at his feet, the sand a dazzling white powder, the sky a pure blue that could only be God's blank canvas, the sun a soothing and rich as a Swedish masseur with a snifter of cognac, and he was intensely miserable.
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Harlan Coben |
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b934946
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When you can see the stakes, when you realize the true purpose of your mission, it motivates you. It makes you focus. It makes you push away the distractions. You gain clarity of purpose. You gain strength.
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Harlan Coben |
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7f3e104
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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.
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Harlan Coben |
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bde2420
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My love for you is like diarrhea," Sunglasses said. "I just can't hold it in."
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Harlan Coben |
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e4c22b3
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Oh, you've made plenty of short stories long. But never, ever, have you made a long story short.
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Harlan Coben |
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6377426
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Acceptance of the inevitable, a sign of a wise man.
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Harlan Coben |
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1222615
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One time Clu tried to explain it to me," Enos continued. "'Sometimes,' he said, 'you don't want to escape the world; sometimes you want to escape yourself.' " He cocked his head. "Do you believe that?" "Not really," Myron said. "Like a lot of cute phrases, it sounds good. But it also sounds like a load of self-rationalization."
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Harlan Coben |
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2a4a7b0
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Today he was being reminded yet again of the obvious: The world doesn't give even the slightest damn about us or our petty problems. We never quite get that, do we? Our lives have been shattered--shouldn't the rest of us take notice? But no. To the outside world, Adam looked the same, acted the same, felt the same. We get mad at someone for cutting us off in traffic or for taking too long to order at Starbucks or for not responding exactly ..
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Harlan Coben |
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b8842e7
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Her smile shames the sun
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Harlan Coben |
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0b42b68
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Todavia oigo aquella sandez del <>. Otra mentira mas. Creanme si les digo que no es mejor. Que no me ensenen el paraiso para cerrarlo despues.
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no-se-lo-digas-a-nadie
tell-no-one
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Harlan Coben |
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838a7bf
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But life changes people. It smothers that kind of larger-than-life woman. Time quiets them down. That firecracker girl you knew in high school--where is she now? It didn't happen to men as much. Those boys often grew up to be masters of the universe. The super successful girls? They seemed to die of slow societal suffocation. So
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Harlan Coben |
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f0e8eb0
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Win took another putt. Another make. "We're not the same, you and I. We both know that. But it's okay." "It's not okay." "Yes, it is. If we were the same it wouldn't work. We'd both be dead by now. Or insane. We balance each other. It's why you're my best friend. It's why I love you." Silence. "Don't do it again," Myron said. Win did not reply. He lined up another putt. "Did you hear me?" "It's time to move on," Win said. "This incident is ..
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Harlan Coben |
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c499b8d
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A friend once told Megan that we are always seventeen years old, waiting for our lives to begin. More than ever, clutching to this man, Megan understood that.
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youth
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Harlan Coben |
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a403968
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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
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Harlan Coben |
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a4cd2d8
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I look at her, then at Tasha, and I feel the wondrous blend of bliss and fear. They--bliss and fear--are constant companions. Rarely does one venture out without the other.
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Harlan Coben |
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a9219d9
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Chaz's shift was over, so Kat met him at his apartment in the ritzy Lock-Horne Building on Park Avenue and 46th Street. Kat had come to an office party here two years ago when Stacy was dating the playboy who owned the building. The playboy, whose name was Wilson or Windsor or something else overtly preppy, was brilliant and rich and handsome and now, if rumors were true, had lost his mind a la Howard Hughes and become a complete recluse.
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Harlan Coben |
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8b72783
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Some people, no matter how easy the path they are given on the walk of life, will find a way to mess it all up. Ray Levine was one of those people.
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philosophical
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Harlan Coben |
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4ee94de
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perhaps the greatest lesson was also the simplest: Cherish and take care of what you value. Happiness is fragile. Appreciate every moment and do everything you can to protect it. The rest of life, in a sense, is background noise.
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Harlan Coben |
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2974ca4
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There are virtually no major life decisions you make that are not in some way based on your finances.
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Harlan Coben |
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fc2c834
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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.
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Harlan Coben |
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b7f6c7a
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Another weird thing about funerals: Wear black but kill something as colorful as flowers to decorate.
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Harlan Coben |
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4a04730
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Those who had easy answers, be they on the right or the left, were always wrong. The world is complex. It is never one-size-fits-all.
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Harlan Coben |
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a906b96
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The missing girl--there had been unceasing news reports, always flashing to that achingly ordinary school portrait of the vanished teen, you know the one, with the rainbow-swirl background, the girl's hair too straight, her smile too self-conscious, then a quick cut to the worried parents on the front lawn, microphones surrounding them, Mom silently tearful, Dad reading a statement with quivering lip--that girl, that missing girl had just w..
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Harlan Coben |
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3901121
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The Bad Man isn't lurking in playgrounds, kiddies. He lives in your house.
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Harlan Coben |
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dead68f
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It was true what they said: The older you become, the more you are like your parents. Soon he'd be telling a kid not to stick his elbow out the car window or he'd lose it.
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Harlan Coben |