Quotes from Henning Mankell

Forse diventare adulto significa rendersi conto della propria solitudine

Desconfío de la gente que dice que nunca tiene miedo. Creo que mienten. No tanto a mí como a sí mismos.

La vida es un viaje tumultuoso entre lo que nos causa miedo y lo que nos da alegría. En el mejor de los casos logramos atesorar buenos recuerdos a lo largo de ella. Por más que, en nuestro mundo, sean demasiadas las personas que se ven obligadas a olvidar para vivir.

After all his years as a politician he realised all that was left was the lie. The truth disguised as a lie or the lie dressed up as the truth.

Acknowledging one's fear of the unknown is realising what it means to be a person. Our existence is basically a tragedy. Throughout our lives we strive to increase our knowledge, our abilities, our experiences. But the bottom line is that all of that will be lost in oblivion.

Si se diera el caso de un dolor insoportable que no se pudiera paliar, podría pedir que me sedaran. Así abandonaría durmiendo esta vida y este mundo. Prefiero eso que tener que suicidarme. Es algo que no quiero hacer, por mis seres queridos. Si estuviera solo en la vida, podría ser una opción, pero hoy por hoy no lo es.

Trusting what a person says is always a risk. The truth is always provisional, while lies are often solid.

Neither you nor I believe in miracles. If they happen, they happen. But believing in them, expecting them – that's nothing more than wasting the time alloted to you.

El hecho de que hayamos desarrollado la capacidad intelectual guarda relación, lógicamente, con la supervivencia. En último término, lo único que queremos es sobrevivir. Queremos vivir, no morir. Cada vez que veo a una persona rebuscando en los contenedores de basura veo ante mí ese sencillo axioma: queremos vivir. A cualquier precio.

El dodo no sabía lo que era un enemigo. Y por eso, lógicamente, lo consideraron tonto.

It is not so much the sight of immorality of the great that is to be feared as that of immorality leading to greatness. ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE Democracy in America

I learnt the most important thing you have to know: how to look after yourself. To stand by your own decisions. I didn't become an author during my time in Paris, but that wasn't important. I took the first step towards becoming a human being with self-awareness. The big step forward after that discovery I had made -- that I am myself and nobody else -- while standing outside the community centre in Sveg.

Sólo después de que florezca el roble, que es el último en primavera, despierta el fresno. Me lo imagino como el pastor de los demás árboles, vigilando que las hojas de todos estén verdes antes de florecer él.

He could feel his stomach churning. I'm repressing things, he thought. Along with everything else I don't have time for. I'm searching for the slayers of the dead and can't even manage to pay attention to the living. For a dizzying instant his entire consciousness was filled with only one urge. To take off. Flee. Disappear. Start a new life.

Something inside me has filled up to the brim, and soon the walls will burst.

Existe una suerte de denominador común entre todas las grandes civilizaciones y culturas clásicas: para quienes vivían en ellas, todas eran inmortales.

Even a short-lived visit to the bottom level of society means that one is faced with one of the most important decisions one has to make in life: what type of society do you want to help to create? This is the question that has come to dominate my whole life.

En los países pobres, lo primero que pierden las mujeres es su capacidad de elegir.

Dos conceptos resumen lo que ha sido y, probablemente, también lo que va a ser: supervivencia y destrucción.

Lo repugnante puede resultar atractivo a veces. Aterrador, amenazante, pero también tentador. Como cuando nos acercamos a algo que huele mal, pero no podemos dejar de aspirar el hedor.

Mitä voikaan tapahtua maailmassa, jossa kaiken väitetään olevan mahdollista?

I'm old, he thinks. Old and used up. Every morning when I wake up I'm surprised all over again that I'm seventy years old.

Once more they had left their own time for another age. The age of Bellman, the bacchanalian 18th-century poet.

Sometimes parents don't know their children, he thought. But sometimes a parent knows her child better than anyone else, and