“If a policeman is serious about his profession but says he has time, he lies.”

“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.”

“A journalist who doesn't know how to find a phone number no matter how secret it is should change his profession.”

“Every time Wallander stepped into someone's home, he felt as though he were looking at the front cover of a book that he had just bought”

“He was so excessively polite that Wallendar suspected he had endured many humiliations in his life.”

“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.”

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