Quotes from Henning Mankell

The truth is never simple. It's only in the Western world that you think knowledge is something you can acquire quickly and easily. It takes time. The truth never hurries.

History can never give us exact knowledge of what will happen in the future: rather, it shows us that our ability to prepare ourselves for change is limited.

New ideas are always resisted.

Just as no significant work of art can be created without the element of irrationality that is in fact the artist's talent. p.179 He wondered if there was a greater distance than the one between two people in the same bed pretending to sleep. p.213

History isn't just something that's being us, it's also something that follows us.

Despite everything, I've tried to take responsibility for my life, and not merely allowed it to float away at the mercy of whatever current came along.

Memory is like glass. A person who has died is still visible, very close. But we can no longer contact each other. Death is mute; it excludes conversations, only allows silence.

There's always an end. But the end is always the beginning of something else. The periods we write into our lives are always provisional, in one way or another.

God allowed no mistakes.

The fear of death came and went, though right now her life force was strong. But she had never forgotten what went through her mind when she balanced on the railing of the bridge. Life wasn't just something that took care of itself. There were big black holes you could fall into with long, sharp spikes at the bottom, monstrous traps.

Big changes don't happen at the battlefield; they are made in closed rooms where very powerful people decide in which direction things should go.

We used to send whole flocks of birds shooting out of our mouths and never managed to grab them by their wings.

There is a special kind of beauty that manifests itself only in the faces of very old women. Their furrowed skin contains all the marks and memories imprinted by a life lived. Old women whose bodies the earth is crying out to embrace.

Not everything can go according to the plan.

The experience he'd gained during his years in the police force had given him this unambiguous answer: there are no murderers. Only ordinary people who commit murder

one must occasionally stand the world on its head in order to put it on its feet.

A message was scribbled on the wall: Life is for sale. Alert the news for the media .

One can never wait too long.

A life is a constant quest how to achieve the best result.

Children get acquainted with each other in a special way, they do not make contracts as adults, they believe each other or not. Childish friendships often end in violence. You may become an enemy all of a sudden as well as notice that you are someone's best friend.

Do you know what the wind tastes like? […] Mysterious spices […] that tell us about people and events far away. That we can't see. But that we can sense if we draw the wind deep into our mouths and then eat it.

What was that?' Wallander said. [Linda] 'Nothing.' 'That's funny. I could have sworn you were swearing.' 'I didn't say anything.' 'I have a strange daughter,' Wallander said to Lindman. 'She curses without even knowing it.'

There was a sort of beauty that only comes with age. A whole life engraved into facial wrinkles.

The skerry was resting in the sea. It was like being in a cradle, or on a deathbed, he thought. All the voices hidden in the cliff were whispering. Even rocks have memories, as do waves and breakers. And down below, in the darkness where fish swam along invisible and silent channels, there were also memories.