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" You can't visit readers where you think they are. You have to invite them home to where you are and try to lure them into your universe. That's the art of storytelling. "
Jo Nesbo
Universe
Art
You
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" When you're an established name, you know that a children's book will have a pretty good chance of getting picked up. Like Madonna. It's not that I had this great idea. Actually, in my case, it was a great idea. "
Jo Nesbo
Great
Book
Chance
" Ever since the '70s, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo were the godfathers of Scandinavian crime. They broke the crime novel in Scandinavia from the kiosks and into the serious bookstores. "
Jo Nesbo
Since
Broke
Crime
" For me, the best places to write are on planes, trains and at airports. Not hotel rooms but hotel lobbies. I'm really happy when I'm waiting for a plane and the message comes that it's three hours late. Great, I'll get to write! "
Jo Nesbo
Hotel
Waiting
Best
" I don't have any writing routine. Sometimes I go to my local coffee shop and I write there for some hours. Apart from that, I am traveling most of the time. I write in airports, trains, hotel rooms... I can write anywhere. "
Jo Nesbo
Time
Writing
I Am
" 'Phantom' was for me an interesting technique of telling the story. You have one voice that it is in the present telling what is happening, and then there's one voice from the past that's also driving the story forward. And you know that the two story lines will meet eventually. "
Jo Nesbo
Know
Past
Story
" I tell myself I write because I want to say something true and original about the nature of evil. That is very ambitious - to say something about the human condition that hasn't been written before. Probably I will never succeed but that is what I strive to do. "
Jo Nesbo
Evil
Myself
Nature
" 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. "
Jo Nesbo
Change
Book
Pressure
" 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? "
Jo Nesbo
Person
Actions
Crazy
" Some artists see a gig as an audience worshipping them. I think it is about having a great time together. I have a part as the singer. An audience has a part. Playing a gig doesn't make me high on myself. "
Jo Nesbo
Me
Myself
Think
" At nineteen I was pretty sure I was going to be a professional soccer player. At that time I played for one of the Norwegian premier leagues. But I tore ligaments in both knees, so I started studying business administration and economics and became a financial analyst, and I worked at a brokerage firm as a stockbroker. "
Jo Nesbo
Business
Going
Financial
" When you go visiting countries, you start reading the history of the place and you start getting into the culture, and then you have to leave. In my experience, all countries have hidden treasures. "
Jo Nesbo
Experience
Reading
History
" My father grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., with my grandparents. In Norwegian my name is pronounced 'Yoo' but my father used to call me 'Joe.' "
Jo Nesbo
Father
Name
Me
" The myth about me as a footballer has grown: I am now the lost Maradona of Norway. "
Jo Nesbo
Now
Norway
Myth
" I'm just an entertainer. In a way crime stories are boring. A crime's been committed and at the end you know it will be solved. So you've got to make the story interesting besides it just being a plot. And that's why character matters, why you've got to make the characters interesting. "
Jo Nesbo
Know
Interesting
Story
" 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. "
Jo Nesbo
Thanks
Writing
Success
" I feel more related to some American crime writers than I do to Stieg Larsson. "
Jo Nesbo
American
Than
Some
" When I was a teenager, my father went bust. He could have declared himself bankrupt, but he was an honourable man and he insisted on paying back all his debts. That almost ruined the family. I was aware that my mother and father couldn't control things anymore. I guess I was afraid that we would end up on the street. "
Jo Nesbo
Man
Father
Mother
" In most sports, your brain and your body will cooperate... But in rock climbing, it is the other way around. Your brain doesn't see the point in climbing upwards. Your brain will tell you to keep as low as possible, to cling to the wall and not get any higher. You have to have your brain persuading your body to do the right movements. "
Jo Nesbo
Body
Brain
Rock
" I have questioned myself about the brutality in the last few novels. Actually in 'The Leopard,' in hindsight, I feel I went a little bit too far with screaming blood. There are a couple of scenes that I regret and wish I had the chance to rewrite. 'Phantom' has less blood. "
Jo Nesbo
Feel
Regret
Chance
" 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. "
Jo Nesbo
Loved
Friend
Crime
" All interesting heroes have an Achilles' heel. "
Jo Nesbo
Interesting
Heroes
Heel
" For many years, it seemed as if nothing changed in Norway. You could leave the country for three months, travel the world, through coups d'etat, assassinations, famines, massacres and tsunamis, and come home to find that the only new thing in the newspapers was the crossword puzzle. "
Jo Nesbo
Three
Home
Puzzle
" I was sleeping in a water bed for a couple of years, recommended by my doctor. I was never comfortable in that water bed. In the middle of the night you would hear something happening - water and bubbles. I would always think there was some intelligent life in the water bed. "
Jo Nesbo
Life
Think
Water
" I write something that I believe I've made up, and it's only when a friend later points it out to me that I realise I've been writing about myself again. "
Jo Nesbo
Friend
Writing
Up
" All my friends who wanted to write had got nowhere trying to write the great European novel. So I deliberately steered clear of that and set out to write something story-led. "
Jo Nesbo
Great
Out
Trying
" I've been watching more American TV because of all the great TV series that have come out in the last five to 10 years. I'm a 'Sopranos' fan, I'm a 'Wire' fan, I'm a 'Mad Men' fan. I'm a 'Deadwood' fan. It makes me optimistic for the future of storytelling on TV that producers are willing to take that kind of jump. "
Jo Nesbo
American
Men
Me
" You get spoiled as a novelist because you get to be the director and the editor, and you play all the parts, but as a screenwriter, you are a bit down the ladder. "
Jo Nesbo
Play
Director
Down
" Normally I start with a plot, and write a synopsis, and the ideas come from the construction. "
Jo Nesbo
Construction
Plot
Start
" I was a really bad taxi driver. I only collided twice but it was one time too much. "
Jo Nesbo
Time
Driver
Bad
" 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. "
Jo Nesbo
Your
You
Time