Those pointless equations, to which no solution exists, are called absurdities.

[Her] greatest fear, which was so huge and so black that it was of phobic proportions, was that people would laugh at her feelings.

I will write a couple of books and become a millionaire.

I'm unhappy. I don't want to fall in love with you. It'll hurt far too much when it's over

Always retain the ability to walk away, without sentimentality, from a situation that felt unmanageable. That was a basic rule of survival. Don't lift a finger for a lost cause.

Bullshit," Salander said again. "Gottfried isn't the only kid who was ever mistreated. That doesn't give him the right to murder women. He made that choice himself. And the same is true of Martin.

She had been sharing a house with him for a week, and he had not once flirted with her. He had worked with her, asked her opinion, slapped her on the knuckles figuratively speaking when she was on the wrong track, and acknowledged that she was right when she corrected him. Dammit, he had treated her like a human being.