Steig larsson quotes

To Sally, who showed me the benefits of the sport of golf.

And I guess that in some way I'm falling for you because you are who you are. It's easy to sleep with you because there's no bullshit and you make me feel safe. But this all started because I gave in to a crazy impulse. It doesn't happen very often, and I hadn't planned it.

Take "no" as an encouragement to redouble his efforts, so it was easier to say "yes" right away.

I'm aware of what you've done for me, and I'm not ungrateful. I appreciate that you actually showed yourself to be greater than your prejudices and have given me a chance here. But I don't want you for my lover, and you're not my father.

Nobody can avoid falling in love. They might want to deny it, but friendship is probably the most common form of love.

Taking away a person's control of her own life - meaning her bank account - is one of the greatest infringements a democracy can impose, especially when it applies to young people. It is an infringement even if the intent may be perceived as benign and socially valid.

Lie rather still because this is the first time I've used this equipment.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Men who just call to say hello generally have ulterior motives.

Her voice was as rough as sandpaper. As long as Blomkvist lived, he would never forget her face as she went on the attack. Her teeth were bared like a beast of prey. Her eyes were glittering, black as coal. She moved with the lightning speed of a tarantula and seemed totally focus on her prey as she swung the club again, striking Martin in the ribs.

Dear Government... I'm going to have a serious talk with you if I ever find anyone to talk to.

Her absence had felt like torture--almost a form of personal punishment. He had nobody to discuss his feelings with, and for the first time he realised with appalling clarity what a destructive hold she had over him.

Keep in mind that I'm crazy, won't you?

Candy within reach and then I have to go on a diet.

Salander was the woman who hated men who hate women.

Salander leaned back against the pillow and followed the conversation with a smile. She wondered why she, who had such difficulty talking about herself with people of flesh and blood, could blithely reveal her most intimate secrets to a bunch of completely unknown freaks on the Internet.

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

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.

There's always someone willing to believe malicious rumours.

From a purely physical standpoint she didn't have a chance, but her attitude was that death was better than capitulation.

When other people are grieving, the newspaperman turns efficient.

Mimi was massaging Salander's back and neck. She had been kneading intently for 20 minutes while Salander mainly enjoyed herself and uttered an occasional groan of pleasure. A massage from Mimi was a fantastic experience, and she felt like a kitten who just wanted to purr and wave its paws around.

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.

She wondered what she thought of herself, and came to the realization that she felt mostly indifference towards her entire life.

What an excellent tool the internet is for freaks.

In ordinary detective novels you never see the consequences of what happens in a story in the next book. That you do in mine.

Then she made up her mind.It was absurd to pretend that he did not exist.It no longer hurt her to see him. She opened the door wide and let him into her life again.

Consider this a fair warning.

Friendship is probably the most common form of love.

He's pulling the load of an ox and walking on eggshells.

I have a truly marvellous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.

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

Salander's fingers emerged like something dead from beneath the earth. Had there been any human watching, he would probably have reacted like the fox. He was gone like a shot.

Impulsive actions led to trouble, and trouble could have unpleasant consequences.

There is nothing to talk about" she said. "I'm just a freak that's all.

their relationship was built on friendship, and in matters of friendship he was boundlessly loyal. It was a relationship that would survive the harshest test.

Don’t ever fight with Lisbeth Salander. Her attitude towards the rest of the world is that if someone threatens her with a gun, she’ll get a bigger gun.

I've read crime fiction all my life. A thing that's bothered me about crime fiction is that it's generally about one or two people, but there's not much about society. I want to get away from that particular pattern: a lead, a supporting role and backdrop characters.

Harley-Davidson," she said. "Sweet.

There are no innocents. There are, however, different degrees of responsibility.

I am a rapist and a sadistic pig,' if you get that tattoo removed I will carve it into your forehead, do you understand?

I'm not going to apologize for the way I've led my life.

What irritated her most was that they kept brushing off her arguments with patronizing smiles, making her feel like a teenager being quizzed on her homework. Without actually uttering a single inappropriate word, they displayed towards her an attitude that was so antediluvian it was almost comical. You shouldn't worry your pretty head over complex matters, little girl.

I am what I am,' Salander said 'I ran away from everything and everybody. I should have said goodbye.

His attitude had always been that if a woman clearly indicated that she did not want anything more to do with him, he would go on his way. Not respecting such a message would in his eyes, show a lack of respect for her.

It proved once again the theory that no security system is a match for a stupid employee.

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.

I don't know if I want a steady relationship, but I'm terrified of losing you.

Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are

Crime stories are, as you know, one of the most popular forms of entertainment that exist. If you then try to have something to say... that I have, of course.

He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by desire for any other woman. The fact was that they functioned well together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin.

Zalachenko...you're just an ordinary asshole who hates women.

Isn't it fascinating that Nazis always manage to adopt the word freedom?

In the evening he went to the cinema to see "The Lord of the Rings", which he had never before had time to see. He thought that orcs, unlike human beings, were simple and uncomplicated creatures.

Plague might be a social incompetent, but he was unquestionably a genius.

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

You walk around feeling like a teenager and immortal your whole life, and suddenly there isn't much time left.

You're an entropic chaos factor

No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on something else, to pass the time and to distract her from the situation she was in, the fear came trickling out. It hovered like a cloud of gas around her, threatening to penetrate her pores and poison her.

When their love was not reciprocated, it could quickly turn to violent hatred.

As a girl, she was a legal prey, especially if she was dressed in a worn black leather jacket and had pierced eyebrows, tattoos, and zero social status.

It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on.

Blomkvist had indeed had many brief relationships. He knew he was reasonably good-looking, but he had never considered himself exceptionally attractive. But he had often been told that he had something that made women interested in him . . .that he radiated self-confidence and security at the same time, that he had the ability to make women feel at ease. Going to bed with him was not threatening or complicated, but it might be erotically enjoyable. And that, according to Blomkvist, was as it should be.

It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on. She had also learned that every time she tried to make someone aware of something in her life, the situation just got worse. Consequently it was up to her to solve her problems by herself, using whatever methods she deemed necessary.

I believe that everyone has it in them to kill another person. In desperation, or hatred, or at least to defend themselves.

The media have the ability to attract the craziest people to call in perfectly absurd tips. Every newsroom in the world gets updates from UFOlogists, graphologists, scientologists, paranoiacs, and every sort of conspiracy theorist.

But if you want to win, you're going to have to fight.

Don't call me crazy.I'm a survivor. I do what I have to do to survive.

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

If love is liking someone an awful lot, then I suppose I'm in love with several people.

I’ve had many enemies over the years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never engage in a fight you’re sure to lose. On the other hand, never let anyone who has insulted you get away with it. Bide your time and strike back when you’re in a position of strength—even if you no longer need to strike back.

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.

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.

History is reticent about women who were common soldiers, who bore arms, belonged to regiments, and took part in battles on the same terms as men, though hardly a war has been waged without women soldiers in the ranks.

Salander was afraid of no-one and nothing. She realized that she lacked the necessary imagination - and that was evidence enough that there was something wrong with her brain.

Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don't have trust, the friendship will crumble.

I'm a fast writer, and crime novels are easy to do. It's much harder to write a 1,000 word article, where everything has to be 100 per cent correct.

He comes off a little like Practical Pig in The Three Little Pigs.

I know what kind of things I myself have been irritated by in detective stories. They are often about one or two persons, but they don't describe anything in the society outside.

Being a homicide detective ca be the loneliest job in the world. The friends of the victim are upset and in despair, but sooner or later - after weeks or months - they go back to their everyday lives. For the closest family it takes longer, but for the most part, to some degree, they too get over the grieving and despair. Life has to go on; it does go on. But the unsolved murders keep gnawing away and in the end there's only one person left who thinks night and day about the victim: it's the office who is left with the investigation.

What she had realised was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst.

She had put on make-up in a colour scheme that indicated she might be colourblind.

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

-Who knows about this? -Just me, the police, the killer, and now you.

Armageddon was yesterday, today we have a serious problem.

Sometimes they were together so often that it felt as though they really were a couple; sometimes weeks and months would go by before they saw each other. But even as alcoholics are drawn to the state liquor store after a stint on the wagon, they always came back to each other.

There was a whole army of people who seemed not to have anything better to do than to try to disrupt her life, and , if they were given the opportunity, to correct the way she had chosen to live it.

Normally seven minutes of another person's company was enough to give her a headache so she set things up to live as a recluse. She was perfectly content as long as people left her in peace. Unfortunately society was not very smart or understanding.

Don't exaggerate. Just give your natural bitchy selves full rein

I abhor crime novels in which the main character can behave however he or she pleases, or do things that normal people do not do, without those actions having social consequences.

Salander never forgets an injustice, and by nature she was anything but forgiving.

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

Every year Swedish society produces a new generation of threatened women who can testify to the lack of legal rights and the lukewarm interest shown by the police and other authorities.

Only a woman who had killed a man in battle was allowed to give up her virginity.

As the situation developed, the futility of attempting suicide in the middle of a hospital became apparent.

Martin was dafter than a syphilitic polecat - where do I get these metaphors from?

I have been threatened occasionally. But that happens to everybody who is writing this kind of things. Threats will come without fail. It might happen to the most 'innocent' texts. If it gets too much we call the police.

Your job description as a journalist is to question and scrutinize critically-neve r to repeat claims uncritically, no matter how highly placed the sources in the bureaucracy. Don't ever forget that. You're a damn good writer, but that talent is completely worthless if you forget your job description.

Faste knew better than to argue with a doctor, since they were the closest things to God's representatives here on Earth.

I started to write in 2001. I wrote the books for the fun of it. It was an old idea I had had since the nineties.

We need to have a talk on the subject of what's yours and what's mine.

There were not so many physical threats that could not be countered with a decent hammer.

Writing detective stories is about writing light literature, for entertainment. It isn't primarily a question of writing propaganda or classical literature.

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

A journalist finds out things by asking questions of people who know.

Cortez looked like someone newly in love, the way only twenty-four-year-olds can look.

When I find the motherfucker who tortured an innocent cat to death just to send us a warning, I'm going to clobber him with a baseball bat

Oppurtunity Makes the Thief

I am not altogether confident of my ability to put my thoughts into words: My texts are usually better after an editor has hacked away at them, and I am used to both editing and being edited. Which is to say that I am not oversensitive in such matters.

She saw him drenched with gasoline. She could actually feel the box of matches in her hand.

Then I discovered that being related is no guarantee of love!

It doesn't matter how good the enemy's weapons are. If he can't see you, he can't hit you. Cover, cover, cover. Make sure you're never exposed.

Capitalists' wet dreams is to be involved in charity.

...you have no idea how mentally handicapped I could be if push comes to shove.

You were difficult enough to catch,” Faste said. Salander gave him a long look, satisfied herself that he was an idiot, and decided that she would not waste too many seconds concerning herself with his existence.

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.

But she wished she had had the guts to go up to him and say hello. Or possibly break his legs, she wasn't sure which.

To exact revenge for yourself or your friends is not only a right, it's an absolute duty.

No, I don't believe in God, but I respect the fact that you do. Everyone has to have something to believe in.

It was completely impossible to box with her. She had only one style, which we called Terminator Mode. She would try to nail her opponent, and it didn’t matter if it was just a warm-up of friendly sparring.

He felt that he had to find Salander and hold her close. She would probably bite him if he tried.