David Lagercrantz

“I've always been interested in people who think out of their time, and I have this passion, actually, for science. I'm just so enormously interested in how, when you think of these revolutionary ideas, other people get threatened, especially if you are different.”

“I want to be read, and I certainly want to sell, but I also see my father's eye from Heaven: 'Always write quality. It doesn't matter if you sell; if it's good, it's good - if you capture the complexity of life.'”

“There is no money in the world that would compensate me for writing a lousy book.”

“The beautiful thing is I have sort of grown up. I don't care if I'm highbrow or not anymore.”

“Of course I want to be a best seller because I'm in the business and I want to be read, but there is no money in the world that can compensate for writing badly.”

“We're equal before the law - if we pay the same amount”

“I wrote about Alan Turing, the great mathematician and code-breaker. He was an absolutely different person, certainly more brilliant than I ever will be.”

“I'm not a secretive guy. I'm talkative.”

“I have this reporter's temperament still in me - I thrive under pressure.”

“My life as an author has always been about brilliant, odd people.”

“The apple was meant to take away the bitter taste, perhaps,” he said.“I imagine that Mr. Turing wasn’t exactly looking for a taste experience,” said Corell.“Man always tries to limit his suffering.”

“All I wanted to do was to follow my passion and tell a good story.”

“We must fight intolerance, racism and the far-Right.”

“I'm very bad at violence in real life. I can't stand it. And I'm so fed up with crime novels that have too much violence. I can't really do it. It's unnecessary.”

“You have to search for the best writer - I'm not saying I'm the one, but it's a bad idea to just find the person who is a copycat of Stieg Larsson.”

“A supervillain must continue to exist.”

“I'm always interested in talented or odd people, and my whole life I've written about geniuses who society has treated badly and they strike back - or not.”

“All great characters, great icons, in literature are a bit of a riddle, and that's the reason we go back to them over and over.”

“We had all these famous writers in Sweden and from all over the world home at dinner. I wanted to be a writer, and I wanted to be a highbrow writer as my father. He never, ever read anything like crime novels. He wrote biographies of Dante, James Joyce, August Strindberg and Joseph Conrad.”

“A man who can make love with another man can also make love with the enemy.”