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The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3) QUOTES

The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3) QUOTES

1 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

2 " 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 Nesbø , The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)

3 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

4 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

5 " 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 Hole, #3)

6 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

7 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

8 " He looked as if he was trying to set a new world record in being bored. "

― Jo Nesbø , The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)

9 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

10 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

11 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

12 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

13 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

14 " The prosecutor nodded to the usher, who opened the door at the back of the room. There was a scraping of chairs outside, the door opened wide and a large man strolled in. Krohn noted that the man was wearing a suit jacket which was slightly too small, black jeans and large Dr Martens boots. The close-shaven head and the slim athletic body suggested an age somewhere around the early thirties – although the bloodshot eyes with bags underneath and the pale complexion with thin capillaries bursting sporadically into small red deltas pointed more in the region of fifty. ‘Police Officer Harry Hole?’ the judge asked when the man had taken a seat in the witness box. "

― Jo Nesbø , The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)

15 " On page six his eyes fell on a large photograph of a wooden road sign with a sun cross painted on. Oslo 2,611 km, it said on one arm, Leningrad 5 km on the other. The article beneath was credited to Even "

― Jo Nesbø , The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)

16 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

17 " They let the enemy build mosques in our midst, let them rob our old folk and mingle blood with our women. It is no more than our duty as Norwegians to protect our race and to eliminate those who fail us. "

― Jo Nesbø , The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)

18 " You’ve got body armour on, haven’t you?’ Harry twisted round to check. ‘Have you or haven’t you?’ She tapped her chest with her knuckles by way of reply. ‘Lightweight?’ She nodded. ‘For fuck’s sake, Ellen! I gave the order for ballistic vests to be worn. Not those Mickey Mouse vests.’ ‘Do you know what the Secret Service guys use?’ ‘Let me guess. Lightweight vests?’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘Do you know what I don’t give a shit about?’ ‘Let me guess. The Secret Service?’ ‘That’s right. "

― Jo Nesbø , The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)

19 " 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 (Harry Hole, #3)

20 " Politiets overvåkningstjeneste, or POT, the Security Service, "

― Jo Nesbø , The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)