Quotes from Phantom

Jo Nesbø ·  378 pages

Rating: (28.4K votes)


“But perhaps that's why we take snaps...to provide false evidence to underpin the false claim that we were happy. Because the thought that we weren't happy at least for some time during our lives is unbearable. Adults order children to smile in the photos, involve them in the lie, so we smile, we feign happiness.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Everyone knew that fat had become the new cancer, yet they bellyached about the dieting hysteria and applauded the "real" women's body. As though doing no exercise and being overfed was some kind of sensible mold.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“But everything good in this shit world is either by prescription, sold out, or so expensive you have to sell your soul to taste it. Life is a restaurant you can't afford. Death the bill for the food you didn't even have a chance to eat. So you order the most expensive thing on the menu - you're in for it anyway, right? - and if you're lucky, you get a mouthful.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Are you dying?"
Cato lit his cigarette. "It's not acute, perhaps, but we're all dying, Harry.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“A rat is neither good nor evil. It does what a rat has to do.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom



“Let me say here and now that faith has never done me any good, only doubt. So that is what has become my testament.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Well, it is in fact possible to put things behind you, Rakel. The art of dealing with ghosts is to dare to look at them long and hard until you know that is what they are. Ghosts. Lifeless, powerless ghosts.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Life owes you, but sometimes you have to be your own fucking debt collector. And if we have to burn in hell for it, heaven's going to be sparsely populated.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“And I didn’t want you to expose me as a deserter, someone who disappears. But things happened as they did anyway. What I wanted to say was that even if I wasn’t there for you, that doesn’t mean you weren’t important to me. We can’t live the lives we would like to. We’re prisoners of … things. Of who we are.” Oleg lifted his chin. “Of junk and shit.” “That, too.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Ja. Es ist wirklich möglich Dinge hinter sich zu lassen, Rakel. Es kommt bei diesen Gespenstern darauf an, sie lange und intensiv genug anzuschauen, damit man erkennt, dass es bloß Gespenster sind. Das ist die Kunst. Tote, ohnmächtige Trugbilder.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom



“Jeder läuft in den Fußstapfen derer, die es vor ihm gab.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Life owes you, but sometimes you have to be your own fucking debt collector.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“—Claro que a lo mejor por eso nos hacemos fotos —continuó Harry—. Para obtener pruebas falsas con las que poder fundamentar la afirmación falsa de que éramos felices. Porque pensar que nunca hemos sido felices se nos hace insoportable. Los adultos obligan a los niños a sonreír cuando les hacen fotos, los incluyen en la mentira; por eso sonreímos, fingimos felicidad. Pero Oleg nunca fue capaz de sonreír si no lo sentía, no era capaz de mentir, no tenía ese don.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“A vida é um restaurante que não podemos frequentar. A morte é a conta da refeição que não tivemos sequer oportunidade de provar. Por isso, pedes o repasto mais caro na ementa, também já estás nas lonas, certo, e talvez consigas levar uma garfada à boca. p288”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“change of scene. A new start. And it worked.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom



“In any conflict we instinctively take the side of those who look most like us.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“She stroked his shoulder, up as far as his neck and back again. Over his chest. And he thought she must be able to feel his heart beating and that she was like the Pioneer TV they had stopped producing because it was too good, and you could see it was good because the black part of the picture was so black.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Such is the end of the evil-doer: the death of a sinner always reflects his life.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Nybakk’s shotgun in Oppsal was the easier option. Furthermore, a shotgun gave him more room to maneuver. To retrieve the rifle”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom


“Because the thought that we weren’t happy at least for some time during our lives is unbearable. Adults”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Phantom



About the author

Jo Nesbø
Born place: in Oslo, Norway
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Poétise, poétise, fais-toi le grand cinéma de la liberté passée. Vrai que j'aimais ma vie, que je voyais l'avenir sans désespoir. Et je ne m'ennuyais pas. J'en ai réellement prononcé des propos désabusés sur le mariage, le soir dans ma chambre, avec les copines étudiantes, une connerie, la mort, rien qu'à voir la trombine des couples mariés au restau, ils bouffent l'un en face de l'autre sans parler, momifiés. Quand Hélène, licence de philo, concluait que c'était tout de même un mal nécessaire, pour avoir des enfants, je pensais qu'elle avait de drôles d'idées, des arguments saugrenus. Moi je n'imaginais jamais la maternité avec ou sans mariage. Je m'irritais aussi quand presque toutes se vantaient de savoir bien coudre, repasser sans faux plis, heureuses de ne pas être seulement intellectuelles, ma fierté devant une mousse au chocolat réussie avait disparu en même temps que Brigitte, la leur m'horripilait. Oui, je vivais de la même manière qu'un garçon de mon âge, étudiant qui se débrouille avec l'argent de l'État, l'aide modeste des parents, le baby-sitting et les enquêtes, va au cinéma, lit, danse, et bosse pour avoir ses examens, juge le mariage une idée bouffonne.”
― Annie Ernaux, quote from A Frozen Woman


“The feeling of not being wanted somewhere when you aren't sure how to leave is one of the worst feelings.”
― Anna Todd, quote from After Ever Happy


“Bir noktaya kadar bir sefalet düşüncesi ya da görünüşünün içimizdeki en temiz duyguları kendine çektiği çok doğru, çok da korkunç; ama bazı özel durumlarda, o noktayı geçince böyle olmuyor. Bunun her zaman insan yüreğinin doğuştan gelme bencilliğinden ötürü böyle olduğunu söyleyenler yanılıyorlar. Aşırı ve organik bir kötülüğü, hastalığı tedavi etmenin umutsuz olmasından ileri geliyor bu. Duyarlı biri için acıma çoğu zaman acı demektir. Böyle bir acımanın herhangi bir işe yaramadığı sonunda anlaşılınca, sağduyu insana bundan kurtulması gerektiğini söylüyor, uyarıyor.”
― Herman Melville, quote from Bartleby el escribiente


“From then on, we knew there could never be a problem bigger than Mom's ability to solve it.”
― quote from The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less


“Evidentemente, soy muy ignorante, la verdad es esa, y es muy triste para mi, pero esto supone una ventaja: El ignorante osa a más cosas. También estoy preparado para soportar todavía un poco la ignorancia y sus consecuencias -malas, de acuerdo- tanto como resistan mis fuerzas.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Slottet


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