Stieg Larsson Quotes

No, I don't believe in God, but I respect the fact that you do. Everyone has to have something to believe in. ~ Stieg Larsson

And I guess that in some way I'm falling for you because you are who you are. It's easy to sleep with you because there's no bullshit and you make me feel safe. But this all started because I gave in to a crazy impulse. It doesn't happen very often, and I hadn't planned it. ~ Stieg Larsson

He knows that I have a photographic memory ... and that I'm a hacker. ~ Stieg Larsson

Only a woman who had killed a man in battle was allowed to give up her virginity. ~ Stieg Larsson

had come out and said - if not in so many words - that he was innocent of libel and that another truth existed. Precisely because she had not used the word "innocent," his innocence ~ Stieg Larsson

I know I don't want to be Stieg Larsson my whole life. ~ David Lagercrantz

It was completely impossible to box with her. She had only one style, which we called Terminator Mode. She would try to nail her opponent, and it didn't matter if it was just a warm-up of friendly sparring. ~ Stieg Larsson

What she had realized was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst. ~ Stieg Larsson

Candy within reach and then I have to go on a diet. ~ Stieg Larsson

I have tried to create main characters who are drastically different from the types who generally appear in crime novels. Mikael Blomkvist, for instance, doesn't have ulcers or booze problems or an anxiety complex. He doesn't listen to operas, nor does he have an oddball hobby such as making model airplanes. ~ Stieg Larsson

I abhor crime novels in which the main character can behave however he or she pleases, or do things that normal people do not do, without those actions having social consequences. ~ Stieg Larsson

Nobody was innocent. There were only varying degrees of responsibility. ~ Stieg Larsson

I know what kind of things I myself have been irritated by in detective stories. They are often about one or two persons, but they don't describe anything in the society outside. ~ Stieg Larsson

I;m not going to compete with you. I'm better than you are at what I do. And you're better than I am at what you do. ~ Stieg Larsson

Plague might be a social incompetent, but he was unquestionably a genius. ~ Stieg Larsson

History is reticent about women who were common soldiers, who bore arms, belonged to regiments, and took part in battles on the same terms as men, though hardly a war has been waged without women soldiers in the ranks. ~ Stieg Larsson

As a girl, she was a legal prey, especially if she was dressed in a worn black leather jacket and had pierced eyebrows, tattoos, and zero social status. ~ Stieg Larsson

Normally seven minutes of another person's company was enough to give her a headache so she set things up to live as a recluse. She was perfectly content as long as people left her in peace. Unfortunately society was not very smart or understanding. ~ Stieg Larsson

Never engage in a fight you're sure to lose. On the other hard, never let anyone who has insulted you get away with it. ~ Stieg Larsson

When this is all over I'm going to found an association called 'The Knights of the Idiotic Table' and its purpose will be to arrange an annual dinner where we tell stories about Lisbeth Salander. You're all members. ~ Stieg Larsson

Take it all off. I don't intend to fuck somebody in his underwear. And you have to use a condom. I know where I've been, but I don't know where you've been. - Lisbeth Salander ~ Stieg Larsson

May I ask a personal question?" She looked at him. He waited until she nodded. "That dragon tattoo ... Why did you get it?" "You didn't see it before?" He smiled all of a sudden. "I mean I've glanced at it, but when you were uncovered I was pretty busy stopping the bleeding and extracting bullets and so on. ~ Stieg Larsson

When other people are grieving, the newspaperman turns efficient. ~ Stieg Larsson

He did not come across as a crook . But then crooks are often very good at presenting the,selves as the saintliness of saints, and Blomkvist was not go8ng to let hi,self be impressed by the large amounts of money Mannheimer apparently gave to charity, or the fact that he seemed bright and modest. ~ Stieg Larsson

To exact revenge for yourself or your friends is not only a right, it's an absolute duty. ~ Stieg Larsson

It was this simple. Some had it. Others would always falter when it came to the crunch. ~ Stieg Larsson

You have no idea how mentally handicapped I could be if push comes to shove. ~ Stieg Larsson

I mean, I may not hold the record in cleaning house either, but if I've got old milk cartons that smell like maggots I bundle them up and put them out."
"I'm on a disability pension'" he said. "I'm socially incompetent. ~ Stieg Larsson

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. ~ Stieg Larsson

She went out on the balcony and leaned ~ Stieg Larsson

Capitalists' wet dreams is to be involved in charity. ~ Stieg Larsson

I'm not arguing. I just think that it's pathetic that creeps always have to have someone else to blame. ~ Stieg Larsson

She had put on make-up in a colour scheme that indicated she might be colourblind. ~ Stieg Larsson

It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on. She had also learned that every time she tried to make someone aware of something in her life, the situation just got worse. Consequently it was up to her to solve her problems by herself, using whatever methods she deemed necessary. ~ Stieg Larsson

As psychiatrists we must teach ourselves to interpret the overall picture. With regard to Lisbeth Salander, you can see on her body, for example, a multitude of tattoos and piercings, which are a form of self-destructive behaviour and a way of damaging one's own body. We can interpret that as a manifestation of self-hate." Giannini turned to Salander. "Are your tattoos a manifestation of self-hate?" she said. "No," Salander said. Giannini ~ Stieg Larsson

This is how it goes. We are born. We live. We grow old. We die. He had played his part. All that remained was the disintegration. ~ Stieg Larsson

The job of the financial journalist was to examine the sharks who created interest crises and speculated away the savings of small investors, to scrutinize company boards with the same merciless zeal. ~ Stieg Larsson

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. ~ Stieg Larsson

You could get pretty angry with less provocation. She ~ Stieg Larsson

I believe that everyone has it in them to kill another person. In desperation, or hatred, or at least to defend themselves. ~ Stieg Larsson

He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by
desire for any other woman. The fact was that they functioned well
together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin. ~ Stieg Larsson

Taking away a person's control of her own life - meaning her bank account - is one of the greatest infringements a democracy can impose, especially when it applies to young people. It is an infringement even if the intent may be perceived as benign and socially valid. ~ Stieg Larsson

As the situation developed, the futility of attempting suicide in the middle of a hospital became apparent. ~ Stieg Larsson

She felt high, as if she had consumed some inappropriate and presumably illegal substance. She focused her gaze on the street lamp outside the window and sat still while her brain worked at top speed. ~ Stieg Larsson

Mathematics was actually a logical puzzle with endless variations - riddles that could be solved. The trick was not to solve arithmetical problems. Five times five would always be twenty-five. The trick was to understand combinations of the various rules that made it possible to solve any mathematical problem whatsoever. ~ Stieg Larsson

Harley-Davidson," she said. "Sweet. ~ Stieg Larsson

If love is liking someone an awful lot, then I suppose I'm in love with several people. ~ Stieg Larsson

What do you need me for? Salander's greatest fear, which was so huge and so black that it was of phobic proportions, was that people would laugh at her feelings. And all of a sudden all her carefully constructed self-confidence seemed to crumble. ~ Stieg Larsson

In many respects I have gone out of my way to avoid the usual approach adopted in crime novels. I have used some techniques that are normally outlawed - the presentation of Mikael Blomkvist, for instance, is based exclusively on the personal case study made by Lisbeth Salander. ~ Stieg Larsson

Somehow she managed to survive and dig herself out and - "
"And somehow get back to the farm and swing an axe into Zalachenko's skull," Blomkvist finished for him. "She can be a moody bitch. ~ Stieg Larsson

She was like a nagging itch, repellent and at the same time tempting. ~ Stieg Larsson

She marked off another day in her head. ~ Stieg Larsson

Blomkvist had kept the promise he'd made in December to stop visiting Lundagatan in the vain hope that Salander might appear. ~ Stieg Larsson

Don't call me crazy.I'm a survivor. I do what I have to do to survive. ~ Stieg Larsson

It was troubling that one of the few people she trusted was a man she spent so much time avoiding ~ Stieg Larsson

Women disappear all the time. Nobody misses them. Immigrants. Whores from Russia. Thousands of people pass through Sweden every year. ~ Stieg Larsson

metal sign and use the sharp edge to cleave Berger's head in two. She did nothing as thoughts swirled through her mind. Analysis of consequences. Finally she calmed down. ~ Stieg Larsson

If love is liking someone too much, then I think I'm in love with an awful lot of people ~ Stieg Larsson

You have to search for the best writer - I'm not saying I'm the one, but it's a bad idea to just find the person who is a copycat of Stieg Larsson. ~ David Lagercrantz

Salander assessed the situation and saw that it was anything but under control. Her brain was working at high speed. Click, click, click. ~ Stieg Larsson

Cortez looked like someone newly in love, the way only twenty-four-year-olds can look. ~ Stieg Larsson

I'm unhappy. I don't want to fall in love with you. It'll hurt far too much when it's over ~ Stieg Larsson

There was a whole army of people who seemed not to have anything better to do than to try to disrupt her life, and , if they were given the opportunity, to correct the way she had chosen to live it. ~ Stieg Larsson

I've read crime fiction all my life. A thing that's bothered me about crime fiction is that it's generally about one or two people, but there's not much about society. I want to get away from that particular pattern: a lead, a supporting role and backdrop characters. ~ Stieg Larsson

O.K., a band. You already have loads of tattoos. Are you sure you want another one? ~ Stieg Larsson

Too many cooks might wreck the whole dish. ~ Stieg Larsson

Isn't it fascinating that Nazis always manage to adopt the word freedom? ~ Stieg Larsson

Are you bullshitting me? ~ Stieg Larsson

Blomkvist had indeed had many brief relationships. He knew he was reasonably good-looking, but he had never considered himself exceptionally attractive. But he had often been told that he had something that made women interested in him ... that he radiated self-confidence and security at the same time, that he had the ability to make women feel at ease. Going to bed with him was not threatening or complicated, but it might be erotically enjoyable. And that, according to Blomkvist, was as it should be. ~ Stieg Larsson

You mean that your buddy was lying? ~ Stieg Larsson

And yet he kept sticking to her life like gum on the sole of her shoe, either on the Net or in real life. On the Net was OK. There he was no more than electrons and words. In real life, standing on her doorstep, he was still fucking attractive. And he knew her secrets just as she knew all of his. ~ Stieg Larsson

No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on something else, to pass the time and to distract her from the situation she was in, the fear came trickling out. It hovered like a cloud of gas around her, threatening to penetrate her pores and poison her. ~ Stieg Larsson

I don't want any inheritance from my father. Do whatever the hell you want with it."
"Wrong. You can do what you want with the inheritance. My job is to see to it that you have the opportunity to do so."
"I don't want a single ore from that pig."
"Then give the money to the Greenpeace or something."
"I don't give a shit about whales. ~ Stieg Larsson

But intelligence officers never really retire, they just slip into the shadows. ~ Stieg Larsson

The constitution had nothing to do with it. It was, after all, a matter of national security. ~ Stieg Larsson

Take "no" as an encouragement to redouble his efforts, so it was easier to say "yes" right away. ~ Stieg Larsson

You have to distinguish between two things - the Swedish economy and the Swedish stock market. The Swedish economy is the sum of all the goods and services that are produced in this country every day. There are telephones from Ericsson, cars from Volvo, chickens from Scan, and shipments from Kiruna to Skovde. That's the Swedish economy, and it's just as strong or weak today as it was a week ago ...
The Stock Exchange is something very different. There is no economy and no production of goods and services. There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less. It doesn't have a thing to do with the Swedish economy. ~ Stieg Larsson

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. ~ Stieg Larsson

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. ~ Stieg Larsson

I've never had a boy in here," Martin said in a serious voice. "I've never touched another man, as a matter of fact ... except for my father. That was my duty. ~ Stieg Larsson

What Stieg Larsson was up to - it was the Swedish guilt over World War II. All of our neighbors had the most terrible experiences with the bad forces, but Sweden didn't. I think we use the thrillers in a different way. We never write a thriller like 'Who is the murderer?' The big question in most of our thrillers is ... 'Why?' ~ Michael Nyqvist

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

A journalist finds out things by asking questions of people who know. ~ Stieg Larsson

Hey, you fucking creep, in this shithole! I've got a monopoly on that one. ~ Stieg Larsson

Oppurtunity Makes the Thief ~ Stieg Larsson

You're an entropic chaos factor ~ Stieg Larsson

I fell in love with you last winter. I didn't mean to, but it happened. And then I took stock and realised that you were only here temporarily; one day you'll be gone for good and I'll stay here for the rest of my life. It hurt so damn much that I decided I wasn't going to let you in again ... ~ Stieg Larsson

Cuando llega la hora, llega la hora. A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do and all that crap. ~ Stieg Larsson

I can be a regular bitch. Just try me. ~ Stieg Larsson

Don't get politics mixed up in this. It's all about money and it makes no difference if the Social Democrats or the moderates appoint the ministers ~ Stieg Larsson

The reason I work out is that it feels great. That's a normal phenomenon among people who do extreme training. The body produces a pain-suppressing chemical and you become addicted to it. If you don't run every day, you get withdrawal symptoms after a while. You feel an enormous sense of well-being when you give something your all. It's almost as powerful as good sex. ~ Stieg Larsson

Every other basic right, such as the Formation of Government and the Right to Freedom of Organization, are simply practical extensions of the Right to Free Speech. On this law democracy stands or falls. ~ Stieg Larsson

She made a blunder that not even a twelve-year-old would commit, which only proved that her brain was being eaten up by worms and that she deserved to be flogged. ~ Stieg Larsson

Bastards too have a right to their private lives. ~ Stieg Larsson

Men could be as big as a house and made of granite, but they all had balls in the same place. ~ Stieg Larsson

Her apartment in Stockholm might look as if a bomb had gone off in it, but mentally Salander was extremely well organised. ~ Stieg Larsson

Salander's fingers emerged like something dead from beneath the earth. Had there been any human watching, he would probably have reacted like the fox. He was gone like a shot. ~ Stieg Larsson

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. ~ Stieg Larsson

Stark raving mad. ~ Stieg Larsson

She really just wanted his company. She wanted to hear him say that he liked her for who she was. That she was someone special in his world and in his life. She wanted him to give her some gesture of love, not just of friendship and companionship. ~ Stieg Larsson