“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
Jo Nesbø
Born place: in Oslo, Norway
See more on GoodReads
“It would be wrong to say that love produces quarrels; but love does produce those intimate relations of which quarrelling is too often one of the consequences,—one of the consequences which frequently seem to be so natural, and sometimes seem to be unavoidable. One brother rebukes the other,—and what brothers ever lived together between whom there was no such rebuking?—then some warm word is misunderstood and hotter words follow and there is a quarrel. The husband tyrannizes, knowing that it is his duty to direct, and the wife disobeys, or “only partially obeys, thinking that a little independence will become her,—and so there is a quarrel. The father, anxious only for his son's good, looks into that son's future with other eyes than those of his son himself,—and so there is a quarrel. They come very easily, these quarrels, but the quittance from them is sometimes terribly difficult. Much of thought is necessary before the angry man can remember that he too in part may have been wrong; and any attempt at such thinking is almost beyond the power of him who is carefully nursing his wrath, lest it cool! But the nursing of such quarrelling kills all happiness. The very man who is nursing his wrath lest it “cool,—his wrath against one whom he loves perhaps the best of all whom it has been given him to love,—is himself wretched as long as it lasts. His anger poisons every pleasure of his life. He is sullen at his meals, and cannot understand his book as he turns its pages. His work, let it be what it may, is ill done. He is full of his quarrel,—nursing it. He is telling himself how much he has loved that wicked one, how many have been his sacrifices for that wicked one, and that now that wicked one is repaying him simply with wickedness! And yet the wicked one is at that very moment dearer to him than ever. If that wicked one could only be forgiven how sweet would the world be again! And yet he nurses his wrath.”
― Anthony Trollope, quote from The Last Chronicle of Barset
“Hojear libros es parte de la tradición de una librería —le dijo Florence—. Debes dejar que se queden y toquen los libros.”
― Penelope Fitzgerald, quote from The Bookshop
“Don Russell took from Seth and Seth doesn't fare well when his things are taken.”
― Skyla Madi, quote from Forever Consumed
“If her rump were any stiffer, she'd break it every time she rides', I thought to Pounce.
'If she fell on the steps, they would never be able to put her together again', he replied.”
― Tamora Pierce, quote from Mastiff
“She wants to live simply and thinks luxuries little more than social display.”
― quote from Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis
Suspect
A Study in Charlotte
Her Body and Other P...
At Swim, Two Boys
Sullivan's IslandBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
