Quotes from Henning Mankell

A woman would have never been able to live in a house with no pictures of her family

Key rings rattle throughout history. Each key, each lock has its tale.

It was only in the Western world that old people were viewed with indulgence or contemptuous sympathy. In other cultures, age was respected as the period of enlightened wisdom.

Someone must lead the way.

She almost blended in with the wall, dissolved, faded. Could a person become so pale that she was no longer visible?

He had been working with some of them for over fifteen years. It occurred to him that these were people who made up the content of a large proportion of his life. He was now the one who had been working longer than anybody else in the Ystad CID. Once upon a time he'd been the newcomer.

He dedicado mucho tiempo de mi vida a los crímenes y a las investigaciones de los mismos. Mi planteamiento es que el mal siempre es fruto de las circunstancias, nunca es congénito. He escrito sobre crímenes porque ilustran mejor que ninguna otra cosa las contradicciones que constituyen la base de la vida humana.

It's impossible to talk to a madman wisely, Wallander thought helplessly.

Life took on quite a special meaning in this early morning solitude.

Each room has its own life and breath. You have to listen for it . A room can tell you many secrers about the person who lives there. - Rydberg

All the Wallander books are basically a discussion on the relationship between democracy and the system of justice.

We're not allowed to learn to die,' Jansson said. 'What do you mean?' 'In the past death was a part of life. Now it's completely separate. I remember I was six years old when my grandmother died. Her body lay on a door in the parlour at home. There was nothing odd about that. Death was a natural part of our lives. Not any more. We no longer learn to die in this country.

Arrebatada, repentina, inevitable, la felicidad cruza dejándonos el silencio como hacen los ángeles y las luciérnagas, igual que un colibrí o las hadas.

It was the most important art a person could learn: self-control.

Nos quejamos de lo mal que están las cosas, pero yo a veces me pregunto si no están ya mucho peor de lo que nos imaginamos

in a rash moment he decided to lie his way to the truth. If he wasn't mistaken, Ellen Magnusson had had very little experience with the police. She would assume that they searched for the truth by being honest themselves. She was the one who would lie, not the police.

It was a feeling which stayed with him after he got back home to his terrace house on the Kristianstad road. When he had finished his dinner and played with his children for a while, he went out with the dog. Martinsson lived in the neighbourhood, so he decided to stop by and tell he and Noren had seen. The dog was a Labrador bitch and Martinsson had asked recently if he could join the waiting list for puppies.

You can't live with literary characters no matter how much you might like to. You can have them as imaginary friends that you can call up when you need to. One of the tasks of art is to provide people with companions.

Wherever battles are waged there are casualties, and death is a common occurrence. But what is closest to our hearts is the best interest of the people and the suffering of the vast majority, and when we die for the people, it is an honorable death. Nevertheless we should do our best to avoid unnecessary casualties. Mao Zedong, 1944

Recalling the dream was like trying to follow a ship into fog.

Life is like a pendulum. It swings back and forth between pain and relief. Without ceasing, endless. She

Vi brukade prata så när vi var unga, Sten och jag. Om döden som något som man skulle hantera som en part i en duell. Även om utgången var given kunde man trötta ut döden så att den bara hade krafter nog att utdela ett sista hugg. Det var så vi bestämde att döden skulle bli för oss båda, nåt man skulle klara av så att det gick bra.

The game had started. Everybody was assuring everybody else how reliable they were. In fact, nobody trusted anybody but themselves

Någonstans ute i mörkret, borta vid de lömska Stökgrunden slog en osynliga gädda en virvel, och mot öster, där gryningen brukade komma skrek en uppretad tärna. Kanske också fåglar hade mardrömmar?