The Absent One Quotes

“It was late in September and a little more than twenty degrees, so what the hell were people smiling for? They ought to be raising their faces toward the ozone layer in horror.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“It came from down where laughter is a defense and not an outstretched hand.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Reality and fantasy have a tendency to blend together.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, because suddenly there are no tomorrows.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Assad whistled a few notes of one of his native country's melancholic songs. It sounded as though he was whistling backwards”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, Disgrace

“Her boozy breath was day-old, but of quality of Origin. Malt whisky, Carl guessed. The air was so thick with it, an expert would probably be able to determine the vintage.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, Disgrace

“Some inner images made you want to see beyond this world.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“This was what Ditlev loved: ceaseless gunfire, ceaseless killing, flapping specks in the sky terminated in an orgy of color. The slow drizzle of birds' bodies falling from above. The eagerness of the men to reload their weapons.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today, because suddenly there are no tomorrows.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“hung his bow back on its hook and tossed the arrows back in the quiver.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, Disgrace

“Finally Carl shook his head angrily, found the hardest tongue-twister for foreigners to say in Danish, and yelled: “Rødgrød med fløde!” (“Strawberries with cream!”)”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Is it possible that a crime was committed?” the female reporter asked in that excessively empathetic way that’s designed to make inferior news coverage seem earth-shattering.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Her hoarse laughter could make anyone worry about the future.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Not until he stood outside Department Q’s darkened offices in the basement of police headquarters did Carl Mørck fully realize his holiday and summer were definitively over.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One

“Bak stood a moment, as though considering whether the sum total of their shared working life was ending in a minus or a plus.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, Disgrace

“He'd make her work so hard that a job as a cardboard-box presser at the margerine factory would seem like paradise.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, Disgrace

“Carl Mørck, am I disturbing you? said a voice at the door, which made his blood boil and turn to ice at the same time. His spinal cord sent five commands through his infrastructure: get rid of the eraser, cover the last line, put away the cigarette, drop the stupid facial expression, close your mouth!”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, Disgrace

“When he turned round with the cup to his mouth, nostrils titillated by the aroma of a sun that had once shone on a Colombian coffee farmer's fields, Klavs Jeppensen's chair was empty.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, Disgrace

“But then one morning when I’d been on night shift, she miscarried suddenly and severely. The doctor said it seemed as though she had provoked it herself. I found that hard to believe, given how much she’d been looking forward to having the baby. At any rate, there were large blue bruises on her abdomen. But it’s impossible to know about these things. There are a lot of mixed feelings involved when a woman faces raising an unplanned child on her own.”
― Jussi Adler-Olsen, The Absent One