31 Quotes by Hallgrimur Helgason

In Iceland, book lives matter in every sense of that phrase: The shelf-life of the book, the lives in the book, the life of the writer, and the life of the reader.

I'm trying to write about serious issues, about Iceland's journey into modernity, about the soul of Iceland - on how people react when they get too much money too quickly and how it affects our culture.

Iceland is a rich country, but in the early 21st century, this prosperity got to our heads, and in 2008, it collapsed.

My three years in Manhattan were sort of my university years. I was learning by myself, and it was a tough time. That's when I began writing articles for newspapers back home about life in New York. This interest took over, and I moved from painting to writing.

Most early Icelandic paintings are landscapes.

We have to save ourselves from ourselves. We have to minimize the effect our own politicians can have on our society. We have to get some rules from the outside.

For us Icelanders, the Sagas are like the Bible, only much better.

Like many writers, I'm usually more interested in reading about authors than their actual works. We're more curious to know how they were written than what they are like to read.

I'm the kind of writer who thinks style is just as important as the story being told.