The Redbreast Quotes

“Many people believe that right and wrong are fixed absolutes. That is incorrect, they change over time. The job of the historian is primarily to find the historical truth, to look at what the sources say and present them, objectively and dispassionately. If historians were to stand in judgment on human folly, our work would seem to posterity like fossils – the remnants of the orthodoxy of their time.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“And the rest of the story?" he asked, trying to force a smile. "Is that like everything else in POT, on a need-to-know basis?"
She nodded.
The waiter came to their table, but must have sensed his timing was off and went away again.
She opened her mouth to say something. Harry could see that she was on the verge of tears. She bit her lower lip. Then she put the napkin down on the tablecloth, shoved her chair back, stood up without a word and left. Harry remained, sitting and staring at the napkin. She must have been squeezing it in her hand for some time, he mused, because it was crumpled up into a ball. He watched it slowly unfold like a white paper flower.”
― Jo Nesbo, The Redbreast

“In the supermarket Harry had bought a pizza grandiosa which he heated in the oven. He thought how odd it was to be sitting in Sweden, eating Italian food made in Norway.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“Harry lit up, drew the smoke deep into his lungs and tried to imagine the blood vessels in the wall of the lung greedily absorbing the nicotine. Life was becoming shorter and the thought that he would never stop smoking filled him with a strange satisfaction.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“No person or events mentioned in this book should be confused with real persons or events. Reality is far to strange for that.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“I’m working on a large project which I hope will become a book. A war book.’ ‘Hasn’t someone already written that one?”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“He looked as if he was trying to set a new world record in being bored.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“A tone can't be off-key. A tone isn't off- key until it is set alongside other tones. - Harry Hole”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“Why did you move home from the US?’ Daniel asked. ‘Wall Street Crash. My father lost his job at the shipyard.’ ‘There you are,’ Daniel said. ‘That’s capitalism for you. The small guys slog away while the rich get fatter whether it’s boom time or a slump.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“Epigraph But little by little he gained courage, flew close to him, and drew with his little bill a thorn that had become embedded in the brow of the Crucified One. And as he did this there fell on his breast a drop of blood from the face of the Crucified One – it spread quickly and floated out and coloured all the little fine breast feathers. Then the Crucified One opened his lips and whispered to the bird: ‘Because of thy compassion, thou hast won all that thy kind have been striving after, ever since the world was created.’ Selma Lagerlöf, Robin Redbreast, Christ Legends”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“What are your friends like anyway?’ Aune checked his bow-tie to make sure it was straight. ‘They’re like you,’ he said. ‘But my wife knows a few respectable people.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“And a soft spot for the somewhat anguished officer with big ears that stuck out from the close-cropped cranium like two colourful butterfly wings. Even though Harry had caused Møller more trouble than was good for him. As a newly promoted PAS he had learned that the first commandment for a civil servant with career plans was to guard your back.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“Doneslo se mi, že pořád chodíte ke Schrøderům, Harry." "Míň něž jindy, šéfe. V televizi dávají spoustu zajímavých pořadů." "Ale vysedáváte tam?" "Nevidí tam rádi, když člověk stojí." "Nechte toho. Začal jste zase pít?" "Minimálně." "Jak minimálně?" "Kdybych pil míň, vyhodili by mě.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“A Märklin rifle,’ Harry said, ‘is a German semiautomatic hunting rifle which uses 16 mm bullets, bigger than those of any other rifle. It is intended for use on big game hunts, such as for water buffalo or elephants. The first rifle was made in 1970, but only three hundred were made before the German authorities banned the sale of the weapon in 1973. The reason was that the rifle is, with a couple of simple adjustments and Märklin telescopic sights, the ultimate professional murder weapon, and it had already become the world’s most sought after assassination weapon by 1973. Of the three hundred rifles at least one hundred fell into the hands of contract killers and terrorist organisations like Baader Meinhof and the Red Brigade.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“По бурому газону, ведя носом по траве и неся хвост трубой, бежала собака. Хоть кому-то нравится весна в Осло”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“Many people believe that right and wrong are fixed absolutes. That is incorrect, they change over time. The job of the historian is primarily to find the historical truth, to look at what the sources say and present them, objectively and dispassionately.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“He thought how odd it was to be sitting in Sweden, eating Italian food made in Norway.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“—Muchos creen que lo correcto y lo incorrecto son absolutos. Pero eso no es cierto, sino que van cambiando con el tiempo.”
― Jo Nesbø, Petirrojo

“the degradation involved in simply wanting to live.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“He downed the rest of his drink and poured himself another from the bottle of whisky room service had brought up: Jameson. The only good thing ever to come out of Ireland.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“It’s a calculated risk, you see. You’re either laughing all over your face or you’re in deep, deep shit. Whether to take the risk or not. If you take the gamble, you may fall off the twig frozen stiff one night and not thaw out till spring. Bottle it and you might not have anywhere to nest when you return. These are, as it were, the eternal dilemmas you’re confronted with.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“Mnogi misle da su dobro i lose apsolutne vrednosti.No, nije bas tako, te vrednosti se vremenom menjaju.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“74 Rikshospital. 10 May 2000. HARRY RECOGNISED BERNT BRANDHAUG AT ONCE. HE HAD a broad smile on his face and was staring at Harry with wide-open eyes. ‘Why’s he smiling?’ Harry asked. ‘Don’t ask me,’ Klemetsen said. ‘The facial muscles go stiff and people have all sorts of weird expressions. Now and then we have parents here who can’t recognise their own children because they’ve changed so much.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“A few days later Kurt called him to say that Harry Hole had been sent to the front, to some God-forsaken place in Sweden. Brandhaug had literally rubbed his hands with glee.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“You also live in Holmenkollen?’ ‘Close by. Or quite close by. Bislett.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“Oh, yes, they’re still angry. At Third World aid, cuts in the defence budget, women priests, marriages for homosexuals, our new countrymen, all the things you would guess would upset these old boys. In their hearts they’re still fascists.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“The statistical probability of being murdered in Norway was about one in ten thousand. When”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“The United States of America is more than just an ally,’ Brandhaug began with an imperceptible smile. He said it with the same intonation that you use to explain to a non-Norwegian that Norway has a king and that the capital is Oslo.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“This man, commenting on the attack at Dennis Kebab, says we need more racists like Sverre Olsen to regain control of Norway. In the interview the word “racist” is used as a term of respect. Does the accused consider himself a “racist”?”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast

“then two identical Cadillac Fleetwoods (special Secret Service cars flown in from the US) and the President sitting in one of them. Which one was kept secret. Or perhaps he was sitting in both, Harry thought. One for Jekyll and one for Hyde.”
― Jo Nesbø, The Redbreast