“She was like a nagging itch, repellent and at the same time tempting.”

“It seemed hardly feasible that anyone could tune an oil barrel, and even less credible that the barrel could make music like nothing else in the world. She thought those sounds were magic.”

“Oppurtunity Makes the Thief”

“Men who just call to say hello generally have ulterior motives.”

“Later she sat on the ground in the forest between school and home, and spring was so bright and beautiful, the warm air touched her so tenderly, she could almost feel herself changing into a flower. Her light dress felt like petals."I love everything," she heard herself say."So do I," a voice answered.Pearl straightened up and looked around. No one was there.”

“Salander never forgets an injustice, and by nature she was anything but forgiving.”

“When she came to her senses again she cut off all contact with him. It had not been easy, but she had steeled herself. The last time she saw him she was standing on a platform in the tunnelbana at Gamla Stan and he was sitting in the train on his way downtown. She had stared at him for a whole minute and decided that she did not have a grain of feeling left, because it would have been the same as bleeding to death. Fuck you.”