Quotes by Fredrik Backman

“Maybe their sorrow over children that never came should have brought the two men closer. But sorrow is unreliable in that way. When people don't share it there's a good chance that it will drive th...”

“Rune never said anything about it. But to anyone who had known him a long time, it was as if he grew a few centimetres shorter in the years that followed. As if he sort of crumpled with a deep sigh...”

“... not all monsters look like monsters. There are some that carry their monstrosity inside.”

“They hate people and their stories; they have hated for so long and with such intensity that in the end the darkness enveloped their whole bodies until their shapes were no longer discernible. That...”

“And then it goes as with all anger attacks. They dont just consist of one anger, but of many. A long series of angers, flung into a volcano in ones breast until it erupts.”

“When it comes to terror, realitys got nothing on the power of the imagination[.]”

“Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil....”

“Because when you love someone very much, it's difficult to learn to share her with someone else.”

“It's possible to love your grandmother for years and years without really knowing anything about her.”

“You should choose your battles if you can, but if the battle chooses you then kick the sod in his fuse box!”

“There are certainly a good number of alternatives to "shit," if you have a particular need to express such a feeling.”

“We thought she'd save him. We all hoped so much that she'd save him because it would have been like a fairy tale and when one had lived in the dark for so long it's very difficult not to believe in...”

“It's going to be a grand adventure and a fairy tale of marvels. But it's my fault that you'll find a dragon at the end, my darling knight.”

“People can turn into idiots if they're alone for long enough. (Mum)”

“All people at root are time optimists. We always think there's enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on ...”

“People in the real world always say, when something terrible happens, that the sadness and loss and aching pain of the heart will lessen as time passes, but it isnt true. Sorrow and loss are consta...”

“Just everything else, Mum. I just have everything else from you.”

“And then Mum spoons the coffee a little as if shes having fantasies of flinging it in Britt-Maries face. But in a controlled way.”

“People said Ove saw the world in black and white. But she was color. All the color he had.”

“Ove looks at the group assembled around him, as if he's been kidnapped and taken to a parallel universe. For a moment he thinks about swerving off the road, until he realises that the worst case sc...”