Michael Nyqvist

“Sweden is a great country. What is not so great is that we have a society that, in a way, says it's great if you don't look right, if you don't look left, if you just look straight forward.”

“If I compared myself to my kids, they know everything, and they're like small little hackers. I feel also that my identity can be stolen; I'm very paranoid about it compared to other people in the younger generation.”

“Canada was for me very much Sweden, you know? Very much open people, that they read books, they go see films. I felt at home in Canada. And also, you speak French.”

“My early films were very European based. It was 'As It Is In Heaven,' 'Together,' they were great international successes, but then I did, I think, 60 movies or something.”

“I think the power of Stieg Larsson's stories is that he has the guts to show the hidden spots in the side of Sweden. That gave us a push to say that for the first time. That they can't have with the American version.”

“Where I come from, it's a little bit like England. We start from the theater, and we do films a bit on our free time. The history of making films in Scandinavia is so old, it's like the oldest. The Nordic film industry started before Hollywood in Stockholm in Copenhagen.”

“What Stieg Larsson was up to - it was the Swedish guilt over World War II. All of our neighbors had the most terrible experiences with the bad forces, but Sweden didn't. I think we use the thrillers in a different way. We never write a thriller like 'Who is the murderer?' The big question in most of our thrillers is... 'Why?'”

“I think the whole mission of being here on Earth is to accept what you have, and my journey was to accept my own life and not pretend anything else. I think that's what we all struggle with.”

“Now I have a very good life and I am very proud of my work.”

“David Fincher is one of the best directors I know, so I'm really curious to see it. Really curious, and I want to hear Daniel have the Swedish accent.”

“I was not allowed to talk about being adopted when growing up. I walked around feeling like I was going to explode.”