“
Relationships are never fifty-fifty. Sometimes they are sixty-forty, sometimes eighty-twenty. You’ll be the eighty sometimes, you’ll be the twenty others. The key is to accept and be okay with that.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Not all overly attentive boyfriends are psychos - but all psychos are overly attentive boyfriends.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Calvin nodded and withdrew. Myron dialed the private line of Windsor Horne Lockwood III, president of the prestigious investment firm of Lock-Horne Securities in midtown Manhattan. Win answered on the third ring. “Articulate,” Win said. Myron shook his head. “Articulate?” “I said articulate, not repeat.” “We have a case,” Myron said. “Oh yippee,” he drawled in that preppy, Philly Main-Line accent of his. “I’m enthralled. I’m elated. But before I completely wet myself, I must ask but one question.” “Shoot.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Fade Away (Myron Bolitar, #3))
“
There is an odd psychology amongst those who inherit great wealth, because deep down inside, they realize that they did nothing to earn it, that it really was just a matter of luck, and yet how can it be that they are not special? My father suffers from this malady. “I have all this,” the thinking goes, “ergo I must be somehow superior.” This leads to a constant internal battle to maintain the false narrative of somehow “deserving” all these riches, of being “worthy.” You push away the obvious truth—that fate and happenstance have more to do with your lot in life than your “brilliance” or “work ethic”—so as not to shatter your self-created myth.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Teddy actually cries, he misses her so bad, and eventually he convinces her that she”—here Sadie makes quote marks with her fingers—“‘owes’ him the chance to explain.” “And she agrees to meet?” I ask, mostly because I worry I’ve been silent too long. “Yes.” “This,” I say. “This is the part I never get.” Sadie leans forward and tilts her head to the side. “That’s because while you’re trying, Win, you’re still too male to get it. Women have been conditioned to please. We are responsible not just for ourselves but everyone in our orbit. We think it is our job to comfort the man. We think we can make things better by sacrificing a bit of ourselves. But you’re also right to ask. It’s the first thing I tell my clients: If you’re ready to end it, end it. Make a clean break and don’t look back. You don’t owe him anything.” “Did Sharyn go back to him?” I ask. “For a little while. Don’t shake your head like that, Win. Just listen, okay? That’s what these psychos do. They manipulate and gaslight. They make you feel guilty, like it’s your fault. They sucker you back in.” I still don’t get it, but that’s not important, is it? “Anyway, it didn’t last. Sharyn saw the light fast. She ended it again. She stopped replying to his calls and texts. And that’s when Teddy upped his assholery to the fully psychotic. Unbeknownst to her, he bugged her apartment. He put keyloggers on her computers. Teddy has a tracker on her phone. Then he starts texting her anonymous threats. He stole all her contacts, so he floods mailboxes with malicious lies about her—to her friends, her family. He writes emails and pretends he’s Sharyn and he trashes her professors and friends. On one occasion, he contacts Sharyn’s best friend’s fiancé—as Sharyn—and
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Extremism and outrage are simple, relentless, attention-seeking. Rationality and prudence are difficult, exhausting, mundane.
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”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
I don’t care what it means,” I say. “What I do know is that men who do things like that don’t stop. They kill again. Always. They don’t get cured or rehabilitated or, apologies, find God. They just keep killing. So
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
If you are reading this, you were born in the top one percent of history’s population, no question about it. You’ve experienced luxuries that painfully few people in the history of mankind could have even imagined. Yet instead of appreciating that, instead of doing more to help those beneath us, we attack those who got even luckier for not doing enough.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
We are all masters of self-rationalization. We all seek ways to justify our narrative. We all twist that narrative to make ourselves more sympathetic. You do it too.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
The secret to fulfillment is not about exciting adventures or living out loud—no one can maintain that kind of pace—but in welcoming and even relishing the quiet and familiar.
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Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
It comforts us to think that we have control when we don’t.
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”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Ian Cornwell tries too hard to look professorial—unruly hair, unkempt beard, tweed jacket, mustard-hued corduroy pants.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Not all overly attentive boyfriends are psychos—but all psychos are overly attentive boyfriends.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
My father has gotten old, an obvious observation alas, but we are often told how aging is a gradual process. Perhaps that’s true, but in my father’s case, it was more like a plummet off a cliff. For a long time, my father clung to that beautiful edge—healthy, strong, vibrant—but once he slipped, his descent was steep and sudden.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Not all overly attentive boyfriends are psychos—but all psychos are overly attentive boyfriends
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Memories are something we reconstruct and piece together. They are fragments we manufacture to create what we think occurred or even simply hope to be true. In short, our memories are rarely accurate. They are biased reenactments. Shorter still: We all see what we want to
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”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
The stupidest men are the ones who think they can’t be wrong. The stupidest men are the ones who are most sure. The stupidest men are the ones who don’t know what they don’t know.
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Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Be present. I make every woman feel as though she is the only one in the world. It is not an act. A woman will sense if you lack authenticity. While we are together, this woman and I, it is just us two. The world is gone. My focus is total.
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”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
When we got to the Lock-Horne Building on Park Avenue—again Win’s full name is Windsor Horne Lockwood III, so you do the math—Dad said, “You want me to just drop you off?” Sometimes my father leaves me awestruck. Fatherhood is about balance, but how can one man do it so well, so effortlessly? Throughout my life he pushed me to excel without ever crossing the line. He reveled in my accomplishments yet never made them seem to be all that important. He loved without condition, yet he still made me want to please him. He knew, like now, when to be there, and when it was time to back off. “I’ll be okay.” He
”
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Harlan Coben (Long Lost (Myron Bolitar, #9))
“
Windsor Horne Lockwood III was born to great wealth. He did not pretend otherwise. He did not like multibillionaires who bragged about their business acumen when they’d started out with Daddy’s billions. Genius is almost irrelevant in the pursuit of enormous riches anyway. In fact, it can be a hindrance. If you are smart enough to see the risks, you might try to avoid them. That type of thinking—safe thinking—never led to great wealth. Win
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Harlan Coben (Promise Me (Myron Bolitar, #8))
“
Win’s real name was Windsor Horne Lockwood III, as in Lock-Horne Investments and Securities and the Lock-Horne Building on Park Avenue. His family was old money, the kind of money that got off the Mayflower with a pink polo shirt and desirable tee time. Myron
”
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Harlan Coben (Home (Myron Bolitar, #11))
“
Windsor Horne Lockwood III, president of the prestigious investment firm of Lock-Horne Securities in midtown Manhattan.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Fade Away (Myron Bolitar, #3))
“
there is something so personal about penmanship, especially hers, the purity and consistency in her cursive, the beauty and the lost art and the individualism,
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Every home is its own independent country.
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”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
God must have wanted my Frederick for a higher purpose,” she said at the press conference. I hate this sort of justification. I hate it even more when it’s reversed, if you will—when a survivor of a tragedy claims something to the effect that “God spared me because I’m special to Him,” the subtle implication being that God didn’t give a damn about those who perished. In this case, however, Vanessa Hogan was a young widow who had just lost her only child, so perhaps I should cut her some slack.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
We are all masters of self-rationalization. We all seek ways to justify our narrative. We all twist that narrative to make ourselves more sympathetic. You do it too. If you are reading this, you were born in the top one percent of history’s population, no question about it. You’ve experienced luxuries that painfully few people in the history of mankind could have even imagined. Yet instead of appreciating that, instead of doing more to help those beneath us, we attack those who got even luckier for not doing enough.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Part of all worship is abuse. That’s what I’ve learned. Those who love God the most also fear God the most too. ‘God-fearing,’ right?
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))
“
Memories are something we reconstruct and piece together. They are fragments we manufacture to create what we think occurred or even simply hope to be true. In short, our memories are rarely accurate. They are biased reenactments.
”
”
Harlan Coben (Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III, #1))