Jo Nesbø
Jo Nesbø was born on 29 March 1960 in Oslo, a Norwegian citizen who writes in the Norwegian language. His formation included study at the Norwegian School of Economics, and he has pursued careers across more than one discipline, working as a novelist, a singer, and an economist. These parallel identities have shaped a professional life that spans both the arts and analytical fields.
As a novelist, Nesbø has concentrated on detective fiction as his primary genre. His work in this area brought him the Riverton Prize, an award he received in recognition of his contributions to the form. The combination of literary practice and economic training marks him as a writer who has moved between distinct professional worlds, bringing varied experience to his fiction.
Nesbø also maintains a presence as a singer alongside his work in prose and economics. His output as a novelist, produced in Norwegian, places him within a tradition of fiction writing that draws on the detective genre. Born in Oslo on 29 March 1960, he remains a Norwegian citizen whose professional activities have encompassed novels, song, and economic work.
Quotes by Jo Nesbø
Jo Nesbø's insights on:
I wasn’t that into crime novels at all, but a friend introduced me to the work of Jim Thompson – I loved all his books.
Everyone has a need to do penance. It’s a basic need, like washing. It’s about harmony, an absolutely essential inner balance. It’s the balance we call morality.
What do we mean by ‘crazy?’ What do we mean by ‘mad?’ At what point is a person just different and at what point can we call it a disease and say that they are not responsible for their actions? Or are we all slaves to the chemical processes that go on in our brains?
My influence is probably more from American crime writers than any Europeans. And I hardly read any Scandinavian crime before I started writing myself. I wasn’t a great crime reader to begin with.
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.
I’m afraid I didn’t really like Caracas in Venezuela. From what I saw it seemed so crime-ridden that you really have to be on your guard all the time.
Christian ethics demand that you should not take revenge. The paradox is, naturally, that Christians worship a God who is the greatest avenger of them all. Defy him and you burn in eternal hell, an act of revenge which is completely out of proportion to the crime.
Thanks to the success of Henning Mankell and Peter Hoeg, there wasn’t the same stigma attached to writing genre thrillers in Scandinavia as there was in many other cultures. Quite the opposite, in fact.
The only pressure I feel is to write good books. And to not replicate the previous book. Whether you have a thousand readers or a million readers it doesn’t change the pressure. I never feel tempted to give the reader what I think the reader wants.