I usually leave Reykavik for two to three weeks to go to the South Coast of Iceland where I have a small fisherman's hut from the beginning of the last century. That's where I sit down and do the actual writing. I might write for 16 hours a day or something. That's how it happens.

Literature acknowledges that life is complicated.

[Bob Dylan] is a worthy laureate for the Nobel Prize.

I have to face questions like, "Do I simply write the best text I possibly can? Do I specifically engage with contemporary issues? 'Do I consciously try to write something that is timeless?"

All authors secretly hope that their works will be read in 100 years' time and 200 years, and that they will somehow survive into the future.

What literature brings to our times is always the fact that literature refuses to bring any simple or easy answers.

I usually leave Reykavik for two to three weeks to go to the South Coast of Iceland where I have a small fisherman's hut from the beginning of the last century. That's where I sit down and do the actual writing. I might write for 16 hours a day or something. That's how it happens.