Sven Lindqvist
In 2019, the Swedish writer and journalist Sven Lindqvist died in Stockholm, the same city in which he had been born in 1932, closing a life spent largely in the work of writing and essayistic inquiry.
Born in Stockholm in 1932, Lindqvist was educated at Stockholm University. He went on to work as a journalist, a writer, and an essayist, producing his work in the Swedish language throughout his career. The breadth of his output across these overlapping roles reflected a sustained engagement with writing as both a craft and a vocation.
Over the course of his career, Lindqvist received a notable range of literary distinctions in Sweden. These included the Dobloug Prize, the Svenska Akademiens essäpris, the Kellgren Award, the Aniara Award, the Ivar Lo Award, the Lotten von Kræmer Award, and the Lenin Award in Sweden. The accumulation of these honors, drawn from different corners of Swedish cultural and literary life, speaks to the sustained attention his work attracted across several decades.
Lindqvist died in Stockholm on 14 May 2019, having received the Svenska Akademiens essäpris, an award given by the Swedish Academy specifically for achievement in the essay form, a recognition that situated him firmly within the tradition of Swedish essayistic writing he had practiced throughout his life.
Quotes by Sven Lindqvist
In my dream I see the sea, the utterly calm sea. I see the coast, the utterly calm coast. When this utterly calm sea meets the utterly still coast, huge breakers are suddenly thrown up. Two sorts of stillness touch one and other and explode in roars and foam.
Nykyajan kapitalismi viis veisaa uskonnosta ja ihonväristä, kunhan ihmiset ovat käytettävissä joko asiakkaina tai työntekijöinä
The Norweigian philosopher Tonnesen said that to think about anything but death is evasion. Society, art, culture, the whole of civilisation is nothing but evasion, one great collective self delusion, the intention of which is to make us forget that all the time we are falling through the air, at every moment getting closer to death.
You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions.