Wennerström was devoting himself to fraud that was so extensive it was no longer merely criminal–it was business.

The Stock Exchange is something very different. There is no economy and no production of goods and services. There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less. It doesn't have a thing to do with reality or with the Swedish economy.

When this is all over I'm going to found an association called 'The Knights of the Idiotic Table' and its purpose will be to arrange an annual dinner where we tell stories about Lisbeth Salander. You're all members.

The whole organization seemed to be in free fall, indulging in a collective fantasy in which experienced colleagues refused to admit that their every movement, every decision that was made and implemented, only led them one step closer to the abyss.

There's always someone willing to believe malicious rumours.

She's married. I'm more a friend and occasional lover.

It was troubling that one of the few people she trusted was a man she spent so much time avoiding