“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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“As long as Mumma was alive, she knew that some small part of herself had remained a child, cherished and adored. Perhaps you never completely grew up until your mother died.”
― Rosamunde Pilcher, quote from The Shell Seekers
“If you think about it, reading is a necessarily individual act, far more than writing. If we assume that writing manages to go beyond the limitations of the author, it will continue to have a meaning only when it is read by a single person and passes through his mental circuits. Only the ability to be read by a given individual proves that what is written shares in the power of writing, a power based on something that goes beyond the individual. The universe will express itself as long as somebody will be able to say, "I read, therefore it writes.”
― Italo Calvino, quote from If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
“I hate to say it, but shit really does happen. You just have to get over it. Beat the hell out of it by doing things that make you happy.”
― J.A. Redmerski, quote from The Edge of Never
“The only thing that makes me sad is that I shall be leaving Africa when I die. I love Africa, which is my mother and my father. When I am dead, I shall miss the smell of Africa”
― Alexander McCall Smith, quote from The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
“I can do this, I tell myself firmly. I can be attracted to him. It's just a matter of self control and possibly also getting very drunk. So I lift my glass and take several huge gulps. I can feel the bubbles surging into my head, singing happily "I'm going to be a millionaire's wife! I'm going to be a millionaire's wife!" And when I look back at Tarquin, he already looks a bit more attractive. Alcohol is obviously going to be the key to our marital status.”
― Sophie Kinsella, quote from Confessions of a Shopaholic
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