He felt that he had to find Salander and hold her close. She would probably bite him if he tried.

Writing detective stories is about writing light literature, for entertainment. It isn’t primarily a question of writing propaganda or classical literature.

You walk around feeling like a teenager and immortal your whole life, and suddenly there isn’t much time left.

Then I discovered that being related is no guarantee of love and I had few reasons to defend Harald.

I am what I am,′ Salander said ‘I ran away from everything and everybody. I should have said goodbye.

Normally seven minutes of another person’s company was enough to give her a headache so she set things up to live as a recluse. She was perfectly content as long as people left her in peace. Unfortunately society was not very smart or understanding.

The desk was orderly, only a few paper in one heap. At its edge was a silver-framed photograph of a dark-haired girl, beautiful but with a mischievous look; a young woman on her way to becoming dangerous, he thought.

But intelligence officers never really retire, they just slip into the shadows.

I’m not going to apologize for the way I’ve led my life.

Mimi was massaging Salander’s back and neck. She had been kneading intently for 20 minutes while Salander mainly enjoyed herself and uttered an occasional groan of pleasure. A massage from Mimi was a fantastic experience, and she felt like a kitten who just wanted to purr and wave its paws around.