15 Quotes by Fredrick Backman

It’s such an odd thing, the way you can know someone so perfectly through what they read.

Granny has had nine different nurses since she was admitted. Seven of these she refused to cooperate with, and two refused to cooperate with her, one of them because Granny said he had a “nice ass.” Granny insists it was a compliment to his ass, not to him, and he shouldn’t make such a fuss about it. Then Mum told Elsa to put on her headphones, but Elsa still heard their argument about the difference between “sexual harassment” and “basic appreciation of a perfectly splendid ass.

Further to this, Ove has the cat's resentful stares to contend with. Something in its eyes reminds him of the way Sonja used to look at him.

What can the sport give us? We devote our whole lives to it, and what can we hope to get, at best? A few moments... a few victories, a few seconds when we feel bigger than we really are, a few isolated opportunities to imagine that we're... immortal. And it's a lie. It really isn't important.

People talk about a 'winners mentality' because a winner has something that others lack, a special brain that takes for granted that it was born to be heroic. When a game comes down to the last decisive seconds, the winner bangs his stick down on the ice and yells to his teammates to pass to him, because a winner doesn't ask for the puck, he demands it. When thousands of spectators stand up and roar, most people become uncertain and back away, but the winner steps up.

That’s the power of literature, you know, it can act like little love letters between people who can only explain their feelings by pointing at other people’s.

The only time I'm not moving forward is when I'm taking aim.

She found it easier to forgive than Ove did. Forgive God and the universe and everything. Ove got angry instead. Maybe because he felt someone had to be angry on her behalf, when everything that was evil seemed to assail the only person he'd ever met who didn't deserve it.

Alla föräldrar har fem minuter i bilen utanför huset då och då, där de bara blir sittande. Där de bara andas och samlar kraft för att orka gå in till allt ansvaret igen. De kvävande förväntningarna på att vara god och orka. Alla föräldrar har tio sekunder i trapp uppgången någon gång, med nyckeln i handen, utan att sätta den i låset