Swedish taxes are high, and we don't get as much as we used to for them. And our schools aren't so good.

People in Sweden talk a lot about the weather - how much we hate it. But Finns get more depressed.

One of the things I'm really good at is procrastinating.

If I can hit No. 1 on the 'New York Times' best-seller list, I'm thinking of having the entire list tattooed on my body somewhere. It would be fabulous.

Don't ever get old. With each year that passes, the old Viking idea of jumping off a cliff to one's death looks better and better. The only thing to hope for is that you get so senile that you think you're twenty years old again. That would be fun to relive.

Northern Sweden holds a special kind of magic. It's cold, lonely, and the people are tough and silent, or so the stereotype says. This is Asa Larsson's home turf and I find as much joy in reading her closely observed descriptions of the environment, as in following her intriguing plots.

In Sweden, we've moved away from the notion that mothers have some magical, special bond with children.