“The media have the ability to attract the craziest people to call in perfectly absurd tips. Every newsroom in the world gets updates from UFOlogists, graphologists, scientologists, paranoiacs, and every sort of conspiracy theorist.”

“Those pointless equations, to which no solution exists, are called absurdities.”

“Don't get me wrong - I was not a Nazi, and in my eyes Hitler seemed like some absurd character in an operetta. But, it would have been almost impossible not to be infected by the optimism about the future, which was rife among ordinary people in Hamburg. - Henrik Vanger”

“The same source that tipped us off about her and Wu at Kvarnen says that she used to hang out with a bunch of girls there a while back. Some kind of girl band called Evil Fingers.""Evil fingers?" Bublanski repeated."Seems to be something occult.""Don't tell me Salander is some damned Satanist too," Bublanski said. "The media are going to go nuts.""Lesbian Satanists," Faste said helpfully."Hans, you've got a view of women from the Middle Ages," Modig said. "Even I've heard of Evil Fingers.""You have?" Bublanski said."It was a girl rock band in the late nineties. No superstars, but they were pretty famous for a while.""So hard-rocking lesbian Satanists," Faste said.”

“The whole organization seemed to be in free fall, indulging in a collective fantasy in which experienced colleagues refused to admit that their every movement, every decision that was made and implemented, only led them one step closer to the abyss.”

“It would be deplorable if the special interests had the power to silence those voices in the media that they find uncomfortable.”

“Always retain the ability to walk away, without sentimentality, from a situation that felt unmanageable. That was a basic rule of survival. Don't lift a finger for a lost cause.”