Henning Mankell Quotes

“I can’t deal with angry people until after I’ve had my morning coffee.”
― Henning Mankell, One Step Behind

“Martinsson fired. Wallander watched Lucia fly back and put his hand up to his shoulder. The gun fell from his hand and landed outside the counter. With a bellow Martinsson yanked himself free of the guy ropes and launched himself at the counter, straight at the wounded man. The counter collapsed, and Martinsson landed in a jumble of leather jackets.
Wallander lunged forwards and grabbed the gun from mud. He saw Skinhead dash past him into crowd. No-one seemed to have noticed the shots. The traders in the surrounding stalls had watched in amazement as Martinsson made his ferocious tiger pounce.
“Get after him,” Martinsson shouted from the heap of leather jackets. “I’ll take care of this bastard.”
― Henning Mankell, Faceless Killers

“The wife of the dead man had thrown herself down in the mud, and her wails were so piercing that several of the policemen couldn’t tolerate the sound and had moved away. To his surprise, Wallander saw that the only one who was able to handle the grieving woman and the anguished children was Martinsson. The youngest policeman on the force, who so far in his career had never even been forced to notify someone of a relative’s death. He had held the woman, kneeling in the mud, and in some way the two were able to understand each other across the language barrier.”
― Henning Mankell, Faceless Killers

“Wherever battles are waged there are casualties, and death is a common occurrence. But what is closest to our hearts is the best interest of the people and the suffering of the vast majority, and when we die for the people, it is an honorable death. Nevertheless we should do our best to avoid unnecessary casualties.
Mao Zedong, 1944”
― Henning Mankell, The Man from Beijing

“It is as if families on the run are shattered by something other than just grenades. The flight and fear tears us apart and those parts land in all kinds of places - we don't even know where. But we always try to find them afterwards.”
― Henning Mankell, Tea-Bag

“Could you hold Martinsson’s flashlight for a moment?” Wallander said to Hansson.
“Why?”
“Just do it, please.”
Martinsson handed Hansson his flashlight. Wallander took a step forward and hit Martinsson in the face. However, since it was hard to judge the distance between them in the shifting beams of the flashlights, the blow didn’t land squarely on the jaw as intended. It was more of a gentle nudge.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“What the hell are you doing?” Wallander yelled back.
Then he threw himself on Martinsson and they fell into the mud. Hansson tried to grab them as they fell, but slipped.”
― Henning Mankell, Firewall

“The westerly wind whines sharp, wild gees cry in the sky, the frosty morning’s moon.
Frosty the morning’s moon,
Horses’ hooves clatter hard,
Stifled the sound of the trumpet.
Mao Zedong, 1935”
― Henning Mankell, The Man from Beijing

“The passage of time was relentless and capricious, and one would lose the battle with it in the end. The only resistance a man could offer was to make the most of time, exploit it without trying to prevent its progress.”
― Henning Mankell, The Man from Beijing

“Ya Ru’s father had drowned in the big political tidal wave that Mao had set in motion.”
― Henning Mankell, The Man from Beijing

“The whole of China was overshadowed by the injustice of the past.”
― Henning Mankell, The Man from Beijing

“I was enticed like a fly to a pot of honey by something reminiscent of a religious cult offering salvation. We were not urged to commit collective suicide, because the Day of Judgment was nigh, but to give up our individuality for the benefit of a collective intoxication, at the heart of which was a Little Red Book that had replaced all other forms of enlightenment. It contained all wisdom, the answers to all questions, expressions of all the social and political visions the world needed in order to progress from its present state and install once and for all paradise on earth, rather than a paradise in some remote kingdom in the sky. But what we didn’t even begin to understand was that the sayings comprised living words. They were not inscribed in stone. They described reality. We read the sayings without interpreting them. As if the Little Red Book was a dead catechism, a revolutionary liturgy.”
― Henning Mankell, The Man from Beijing