When I was a teenager, my father went bust. He could have declared himself bankrupt, but he was an honourable man and he insisted on paying back all his debts. That almost ruined the family. I was aware that my mother and father couldn't control things anymore. I guess I was afraid that we would end up on the street.

. We have this attitude that people become drug addicts against their will. That they couldn’t possibly want this kind of life. But maybe that’s not true. Maybe they don’t want to live like other people — it just wouldn’t suit them.

When I finish a book, I'm so exhausted that I'm sort of letting myself think that this could be the end.

Let me say here and now that faith has never done me any good, only doubt. So that is what has become my testament.

When I propose a candidate for a job I don't do it because the person in question is the best but because he is the one the client will employ. I provide them with a head that is good enough, placed on a body they want. [...] The world is full of people who pay serious money for bad pictures by good artists. And mediocre heads on tall bodies.

Normally I start with a plot, and write a synopsis, and the ideas come from the construction.

The nature of Scandinavians is that they don't talk so much, there will be these dark secrets, and most things are under-communicated.