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Coincidence is a recognized element in 'real life.' All of us have anecdotes about those times when, by the merest coincidence, we avoided some disaster or stumbled onto some wonderful experience.

In any story, drama may be intensified by the characters realizing by how narrow a margin they had managed to succeed - that is, where coincidence played a role. This is one of the more realistic ways to use coincidence because rarely do we realize how important a coincidental event is until after the fact.

There is always room for coincidence.

When a writer is already stretching the bounds of reality by writing within a science fiction or fantasy setting, that writer must realize that excessive coincidence makes the fictional reality the writer is creating less 'real.'

My life is studded with a series of coincidences.

When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't.

I don't believe in coincidence.

There's almost always a point in a book where something happens that triggers the rest of the plot.

A common complaint about stories that include excessive coincidence is that the story is 'unrealistic.'