At the time of independence in 1975, Mozambique was extremely poor. Many Portuguese residents abandoned the country, leaving only a handful of well-educated Mozambicans to try to run the country.

I know paradise has many gates, just as hell does. One has to learn to distinguish between them, or one is lost.

Shakespeare is in many ways an African writer and 'Hamlet' would be seen as a very accurate historical saga about an African kingdom.

It was a clear, starry night, dead calm. Whenever I see a sky like that, I wish I could write music

I think my Wallander stories give a fairly good image of the world in the 1990s. I don't regret anything about that - on the contrary!

When I was a very young author, I knew I needed to build myself a tower outside of Europe. Like when you're a hunter, and build towers to watch the animals move. I knew I would never understand the world without that perspective. I came to Africa for that rational reason, although I love Mozambique now.

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