In Africa, listening is a guiding principle. It’s a principle that’s been lost in the constant chatter of the Western world, where no one seems to have the time or even the desire to listen to anyone else. – Henning Mankell
At the time of independence in 1975, Mozambique was extremely poor. Many Portuguese residents abandoned the country, leaving only a handful of well-educated Mozambicans to try to run the country. – Henning Mankell
Many people make the mistake of confusing information with knowledge. They are not the same thing. Knowledge involves the interpretation of information. Knowledge involves listening. – Henning Mankell
You can have more than one home. You can carry your roots with you, and decide where they grow. – Henning Mankell
My father thought, and now I think too, that the system of democracy is entirely based upon the system of justice. If we do not have a system of justice that people believe in, the system of democracy will fail. – Henning Mankell
Have I ever written anything that has really changed something? What I believe is that you can’t change anything without using art. I believe that the drops wear away the stone. I try to be part of that army. – Henning Mankell
I am not afraid of dying. I have lived longer than most people in the world. What scares me is to have a body that works but a brain that is waving goodbye. If that happens, I hope I die quickly. – Henning Mankell
Although I never marched through the streets shouting for Mao, I do believe that the liberation of China at the end of the 1940s was a wonderful thing and to provide its people with a billion pairs of shoes and trousers was a fantastic achievement. – Henning Mankell
I would say that during my lifetime, one of the worst political scandals in Sweden was absolutely what happened surrounding the affair of the submarines in Swedish waters in 1982, where there were supposed to be Russian submarines close to Stockholm. And the military of Sweden never got one up. – Henning Mankell
For me ‘Oliver Twist’ is a political novel. It is a furious critique of the treatment of orphans and poor children who were forced to spend their early lives in ghastly institutions. – Henning Mankell
I can still remember. I was ill, and I was seven, and my father didn’t want me to just read children’s books. He came with Conan Doyle. I tried, and I liked it. I think the first I read was ‘The Sign of the Four’; ‘Study in Scarlet’ was the next one. Then I guess I stayed home a few extra days from school to read. – Henning Mankell
Many words will be written on the wind and the sand, or end up in some obscure digital vault. But the storytelling will go on until the last human being stops listening. Then we can send the great chronicle of humanity out into the endless universe. – Henning Mankell
Sweden is still a very peaceful country to live in. I think that people in Britain have created this mythology about Sweden, that it’s a perfect democratic society full of erotically charged girls. – Henning Mankell
I decided to become an author when my grandmother taught me to write, when I was six. I can still recall the sensation of being able to turn words into stories. It was a miracle. – Henning Mankell
I live with one foot in the sand and one in the snow. There’s European egocentricity, and the African opposite. I normally say that my African experience has made me a better European. – Henning Mankell
Go to Mozambique! As long as you don’t expect to find flawless infrastructure, just go. Because this is a country where people have not quite grown accustomed to tourists. You still feel a genuineness that no longer exists in countries where tourism has been industrially developed. – Henning Mankell
I love Sherlock Holmes. There’s still an awful lot to steal from Conan Doyle. But within a tradition you can work in many different ways. – Henning Mankell
Well, I believe that life is very complicated. And in a way, the only way you can show life in a truthful way is to show how complicated it is as an individual, but also your relation between a complicated life and the complications you have inside you. – Henning Mankell
I still have a photo on my wall of the greatest idol I will ever have in my life, and it’s myself at eight. Because that’s when the forces of imagination have the same value as the real world, when they’re an instrument of survival: when my mother disappeared, and I imagined a mother. That was me at my best. – Henning Mankell
I’m quite sure Shakespeare enjoyed writing Iago much more than he did writing Othello. If you write about someone you love, what the hell are you supposed to say about that person? It’s much better to have something between you and your main character that grates. – Henning Mankell
It is obviously no secret that I earn a lot of money. But it is also no secret that I give most of it away. I don’t live a luxurious life. I drive a small second-hand Fiat. I don’t have to worry about money, which is itself a privilege. But I never had any anxiety that I would lose my identity. – Henning Mankell
When I was a very young author, I knew I needed to build myself a tower outside of Europe. Like when you’re a hunter, and build towers to watch the animals move. I knew I would never understand the world without that perspective. I came to Africa for that rational reason, although I love Mozambique now. – Henning Mankell
When you are around 60, there are certain things that are completely terrifying. One of them is that you have made the wrong choices in life, and now it’s too late to do anything about them. – Henning Mankell
