“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
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“The television replaced the sound of conversation that was missing from my grandparents' lives.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, quote from Middlesex
“I knew I could do it all this time,” said Harry, “Because I'd already done it... does that make sense?”
― J.K. Rowling, quote from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
“Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll —”
― Mark Twain, quote from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
“It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.
To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration.”
― Albert Camus, quote from The Stranger
“Diez negritos se fueron a cenar;
uno se asfixió y quedaron nueve.
Nueve negritos estuvieron despiertos hasta muy tarde;
uno se quedó dormido y entonces quedaron ocho.
Ocho negritos viajaron por Devon;
uno dijo que se quedaría allí y quedaron siete.
Siete negritos cortaron leña;
uno se cortó en dos y quedaron seis.
Seis negritos jugaron con una colmena;
una abeja picó a uno de ellos y quedaron cinco.
Cinco negritos estudiaron Derecho;
uno se hizo magistrado y quedaron cuatro.
Cuatro negritos fueron al mar;
un arenque rojo se tragó a uno y quedaron tres.
Tres negritos pasearon por el zoo;
un gran oso atacó a uno y quedaron dos.
Dos negritos se sentaron al sol;
uno de ellos se tostó y sólo quedó uno.
Un negrito quedó sólo;
se ahorcó y no quedó… ¡ninguno!”
― Agatha Christie, quote from And Then There Were None
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