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" I'm not very much of a reader really, because I find much of it very bad, very uninteresting, very speculative. "
Henning Mankell
Bad
Very
Really
Related Quotes:
" My father thought, and now I think too, that the system of democracy is entirely based upon the system of justice. If we do not have a system of justice that people believe in, the system of democracy will fail. "
Henning Mankell
Democracy
People
Father
" I do not understand how on earth you can become a writer without seeing the world. "
Henning Mankell
Earth
Seeing
Understand
" I'm quite sure Shakespeare enjoyed writing Iago much more than he did writing Othello. If you write about someone you love, what the hell are you supposed to say about that person? It's much better to have something between you and your main character that grates. "
Henning Mankell
Love
Better
Hell
" I am fascinated by all the new technology that creates places for us to meet in what is called cyberspace. I understand what it must have meant for the rebellions in the 19th century, especially in 1830 and 1848, when the mass circulated newspaper became so important for the spreading of information. "
Henning Mankell
Technology
I Am
Important
" Although many of his other novels are brilliant there is a power in 'Oliver Twist' that I believe Dickens never managed to retrieve. It is as if he was sent to this earth with the sole purpose of writing this book. "
Henning Mankell
Believe
Writing
Purpose
" Sweden is still a very peaceful country to live in. I think that people in Britain have created this mythology about Sweden, that it's a perfect democratic society full of erotically charged girls. "
Henning Mankell
Think
Live
Peaceful
" My mother did what many men do. She left. "
Henning Mankell
Mother
Men
Did
" I would say that during my lifetime, one of the worst political scandals in Sweden was absolutely what happened surrounding the affair of the submarines in Swedish waters in 1982, where there were supposed to be Russian submarines close to Stockholm. And the military of Sweden never got one up. "
Henning Mankell
Never
Worst
Political
" Shakespeare is in many ways an African writer and 'Hamlet' would be seen as a very accurate historical saga about an African kingdom. "
Henning Mankell
Writer
Kingdom
Historical
" Many people say I smile more in Africa than in Sweden. "
Henning Mankell
People
Africa
Say
" As a writer, I am an intellectual. I believe in the ideals of the Enlightenment, I believe in the written word, in dialogue and in truth. I hate lies more than anything else. Most of the time I react by writing. "
Henning Mankell
Writing
React
Time
" An oppressed people will always rise. "
Henning Mankell
Always
Will
People
" I am a very radical person - as radical now as I was when I was younger. So my books all have in common my search for understanding of the terrible world we are living in and ways to change it. "
Henning Mankell
Change
Now
I Am
" For me 'Oliver Twist' is a political novel. It is a furious critique of the treatment of orphans and poor children who were forced to spend their early lives in ghastly institutions. "
Henning Mankell
Children
Early
Me
" When I was a very young author, I knew I needed to build myself a tower outside of Europe. Like when you're a hunter, and build towers to watch the animals move. I knew I would never understand the world without that perspective. I came to Africa for that rational reason, although I love Mozambique now. "
Henning Mankell
You
Myself
Love
" Many words will be written on the wind and the sand, or end up in some obscure digital vault. But the storytelling will go on until the last human being stops listening. Then we can send the great chronicle of humanity out into the endless universe. "
Henning Mankell
Words
Great
End
" When you are around 60, there are certain things that are completely terrifying. One of them is that you have made the wrong choices in life, and now it's too late to do anything about them. "
Henning Mankell
Life
You
Now
" I realize that Facebook today is a global success with more than 600 million users worldwide. But I also understand, maybe a bit sadly, that it is not for me. Perhaps it is because I am a bit too old? Or perhaps it is because I am more interested in exploring the epic text, which I have lived with for all my life. "
Henning Mankell
Success
Today
My Life
" I live with one foot in the sand and one in the snow. There's European egocentricity, and the African opposite. I normally say that my African experience has made me a better European. "
Henning Mankell
Live
Better
Experience
" One of the agonies of being an author is to know when to stop writing. "
Henning Mankell
Being
Know
Writing
" I decided to become an author when my grandmother taught me to write, when I was six. I can still recall the sensation of being able to turn words into stories. It was a miracle. "
Henning Mankell
Grandmother
Turn
Words
" The wonderful Mozambican people have endured tremendous misery without losing their dignity and their positive outlook on life. Moreover, they have not lost their will to progress and develop. Mozambique is a country where the people never surrendered. "
Henning Mankell
Life
People
Positive
" At the time of independence in 1975, Mozambique was extremely poor. Many Portuguese residents abandoned the country, leaving only a handful of well-educated Mozambicans to try to run the country. "
Henning Mankell
Run
Country
Try
" I can still remember. I was ill, and I was seven, and my father didn't want me to just read children's books. He came with Conan Doyle. I tried, and I liked it. I think the first I read was 'The Sign of the Four'; 'Study in Scarlet' was the next one. Then I guess I stayed home a few extra days from school to read. "
Henning Mankell
School
Home
Father
" Although I never marched through the streets shouting for Mao, I do believe that the liberation of China at the end of the 1940s was a wonderful thing and to provide its people with a billion pairs of shoes and trousers was a fantastic achievement. "
Henning Mankell
Believe
Achievement
End
" Many people make the mistake of confusing information with knowledge. They are not the same thing. Knowledge involves the interpretation of information. Knowledge involves listening. "
Henning Mankell
Listening
People
Knowledge
" I work in an old tradition that goes back to the ancient Greeks. You hold a mirror to crime to see what's happening in society. I could never write a crime story just for the sake of it, because I always want to talk about certain things in society. "
Henning Mankell
Story
Work
You
" You can have more than one home. You can carry your roots with you, and decide where they grow. "
Henning Mankell
Carry
More
Roots
" The fundamental driving force for me is to create a change in the world we live in... It is about exploitation, plundering and degradation. I have a small possibility to participate in the resistance. Most of the things that I do are part of a resistance, a form of solidarity work. "
Henning Mankell
Small
Work
World
" I came to Mozambique in 1986, when I first became involved with Teatro Avenida - a theatre company that stages plays concerned with political and social issues. "
Henning Mankell
Political
Theatre
Involved