I can still remember the miraculous feeling of writing a sentence, then more sentences, telling a story. The first thing I wrote was a one-page summary of Robinson Crusoe and I am so sorry I do not have it any more; it was at that moment I became an author.

Many people make the mistake of confusing information with knowledge. They are not the same thing. Knowledge involves the interpretation of information. Knowledge involves listening.

We only have the past that we have. Not all of our deeds were incorrect.

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

Many people say I smile more in Africa than in Sweden.

Africa was the most exotic place I could conceive of - the end of the world - and I knew I would go there one day.

Sweden is still a very peaceful country to live in. I think that people in Britain have created this mythology about Sweden, that it's a perfect democratic society full of erotically charged girls.