Henning Mankell

“On the one hand, everything is connected, on the other hand, it is not.”

“A full description of a person's life, however uneventful or uninteresting, fills a large folder.”

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

“Working with keys is always meaningful. Locking and opening is, in a sense, man's very purpose on this earth.”

“Some people give theirselves a certain number of white weeks once in a year, when they do not drink a single drop of alcohol. It is really wise. I myself have a few weeks per year, let us call them white or black, when I am not interested in the world around. When I come back from this isolation of the news, I realize that I have missed nothing significant. We live in the rain of disinformation and rumors, where the truth is a very small number. In those weeks of dissociation I seek for knowledge that lies within me.”

“You can't interrupt the process of making a key once you've started. It lets a kind of hesitation into the iron. That happens and the key will never sit well in its lock.”

“We don't have time to argue. Nobody has time.”

“Your memories will be a flock of birds, silently flying in the sky. You will see them flying in and see them flying away. The memories will disappear and there will be nothing left.”

“You think you know everything about a person, but the truth often comes as a surprise.”

“The truth lies in poverty and simplicity.”

“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.”

“God allowed no mistakes.”

“The stories I create are never as awful as reality.”

“One can never wait too long.”

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

“Each person searches for the most beautiful jump which will be the final before leaving this world.”

“'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.'”

“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.”

“You forget what you want to remember and remember what you would prefer to forget.”

“People always leave traces. No person is without a shadow.”

“We’re always being made promises,’ she said. ‘You make them yourselfand you listen to others giving theirs. Politicians are always goingon about providing a better quality of life for people as they get older,and a health service in which nobody ever gets bedsores. Banks promiseyou high interest rates, some food promises to make you lose weight ifyou eat it, and body creams guarantee old age with fewer wrinkles. Lifeis quite simply a matter of cruising along in your own little boat througha constantly changing but never-ending stream of promises. And howmany do we remember? We forget the ones we would like to remember,and we remember the ones we’d prefer to forget.”

“It was a clear, starry night, dead calm. Whenever I see a skylike that, I wish I could write music”

“Life is a flimsy branch over an abyss.”

“But then an old man was discovered impaled in a ditch, and once again his world had started crumbling away beneath his feet. He wondered how long he could keep this up.”

“Police work wouldn't be possible without coffee," Wallander said."No work would be possible without coffee."They pondered the importance of coffee in silence.”

“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”

“I remembered her once saying that life was like your shoes. You couldn't simply expect or imagine that your shoes would fit perfectly. Shoes that pinched your feet were a fact of life.”

“To grow up is to wonder about things; to be grown up is to slowly forget the things you wondered about as a child.”

“Society had grown cruel. People who felt they were unwanted or unwelcome in their own country, reacted with aggression. There was no such thing as meaningless violence. Every violent act had a meaning for the person who committed it. Only when you dared accept this truth could you hope to turn society in another direction.”

“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.”