With regard to power, women don't have the vanity men have. They don't need to make power visible, they only want the power to give them the other things they want. Security. Food. Enjoyment. Revenge. Peace. They are rational, power-seeking planners, who think beyond the battle, beyond the victory celebrations. And because they have an inborn capacity to see weakness in their victims, they know instinctively when and how to strike. And when to stop. You can't learn that.

What we humans think we know is nothing compared to what we need to believe to numb the fear and pain.

Ever since the '70s, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo were the godfathers of Scandinavian crime. They broke the crime novel in Scandinavia from the kiosks and into the serious bookstores.

There’s only one thing worse than not satisfying a desire. And that is not to feel any desire.

Crime fiction is a genre for writing stories about people - about conflict, about guilt, about passion, about the human condition.

I wasn't that into crime novels at all, but a friend introduced me to the work of Jim Thompson - I loved all his books.

To have the chance of being loved we have to take a chance on being destroyed inside