Stieg Larsson · 465 pages
Rating: (2.1M votes)
“What she had realized was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don't have trust, the friendship will crumble.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Then I discovered that being related is no guarantee of love!”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“I’ve had many enemies over the years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never engage in a fight you’re sure to lose. On the other hand, never let anyone who has insulted you get away with it. Bide your time and strike back when you’re in a position of strength—even if you no longer need to strike back.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Keep in mind that I'm crazy, won't you?”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Armageddon was yesterday, today we have a serious problem.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“I can be a regular bitch. Just try me.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“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.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Impulsive actions led to trouble, and trouble could have unpleasant consequences.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“It doesn't matter how good the enemy's weapons are. If he can't see you, he can't hit you. Cover, cover, cover. Make sure you're never exposed.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“No, I don't believe in God, but I respect the fact that you do. Everyone has to have something to believe in.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“We need to have a talk on the subject of what's yours and what's mine.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Sometimes they were together so often that it felt as though they
really were a couple; sometimes weeks and months would go by before
they saw each other. But even as alcoholics are drawn to the state
liquor store after a stint on the wagon, they always came back to each
other.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on. She had also learned that every time she tried to make someone aware of something in her life, the situation just got worse. Consequently it was up to her to solve her problems by herself, using whatever methods she deemed necessary.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“What do you need me for? Salander's greatest fear, which was so huge and so black that it was of phobic proportions, was that people would laugh at her feelings. And all of a sudden all her carefully constructed self-confidence seemed to crumble.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“One of them is that a bastard is always a bastard and if I can hurt a bastard by digging up shit about him, then he deserves it.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“In the evening he went to the cinema to see "The Lord of the Rings", which he had never before had time to see. He thought that orcs, unlike human beings, were simple and uncomplicated creatures.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“She's married. I'm more a friend and occasional lover.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“I am a rapist and a sadistic pig,' if you get that tattoo removed I will carve it into your forehead, do you understand?”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Much stronger boys in her class soon learned that it could be quite unpleasant to fight with that skinny girl. Unlike other girls in the class, she never backed down, and she would not for a second hesitate to use her fists or any weapon at hand to protect herself. She went around with the attitude that she would rather be beaten to death than take any shit.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Capitalists' wet dreams is to be involved in charity.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“...you have no idea how mentally handicapped I could be if push comes to shove.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Her absence had felt like torture--almost a form of personal punishment. He had nobody to discuss his feelings with, and for the first time he realised with appalling clarity what a destructive hold she had over him.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Isn't it fascinating that Nazis always manage to adopt the word freedom?”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“As a girl, she was a legal prey, especially if she was dressed in a worn black leather jacket and had pierced eyebrows, tattoos, and zero social status.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by
desire for any other woman. The fact was that they functioned well
together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“When I find the motherfucker who tortured an innocent cat to death just to send us a warning, I'm going to clobber him with a baseball bat”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“Hey, you fucking creep, in this shithole! I've got a monopoly on that one.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“The media have the ability to attract the craziest people to call in perfectly absurd tips. Every newsroom in the world gets updates from UFOlogists, graphologists, scientologists, paranoiacs, and every sort of conspiracy theorist.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiration date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.”
― J.K. Rowling, quote from Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination
“We’ll vote,” Maia said. “And I promise not to vote for a chick flick. They’re crap anyway. It’s always about two idiots who apparently don’t understand the art of communication.”
― Samantha Young, quote from Moonlight on Nightingale Way
“Maria, lonely prostitute on a street of pain,
You, at least, hail me and speak to me
While a thousand others ignore my face.
You offer me an hour of love,
And your fees are not as costly as most.
You are the madonna of the lonely,
The first-born daughter in a world of pain.
You do not turn fat men aside,
Or trample on the stuttering, shy ones,
You are the meadow where desperate men
Can find a moment's comfort.
Men have paid more to their wives
To know a bit of peace
And could not walk away without the guilt
That masquerades as love.
You do not bind them, lovely Maria, you comfort them
And bid them return.
Your body is more Christian than the Bishop's
Whose gloved hand cannot feel the dropping of my blood.
Your passion is as genuine as most,
Your caring as real!
But you, Maria, sacred whore on the endless pavement of pain,
You, whose virginity each man may make his own
Without paying ought but your fee,
You who know nothing of virgin births and immaculate conceptions,
You who touch man's flesh and caress a stranger,
Who warm his bed to bring his aching skin alive,
You make more sense than stock markets and football games
Where sad men beg for virility.
You offer yourself for a fee--and who offers himself for less?
At times you are cruel and demanding--harsh and insensitive,
At times you are shrewd and deceptive--grasping and hollow.
The wonder is that at times you are gentle and concerned,
Warm and loving.
You deserve more respect than nuns who hide their sex for eternal love;
Your fees are not so high, nor your prejudice so virtuous.
You deserve more laurels than the self-pitying mother of many children,
And your fee is not as costly as most.
Man comes to you when his bed is filled with brass and emptiness,
When liquor has dulled his sense enough
To know his need of you.
He will come in fantasy and despair, Maria,
And leave without apologies.
He will come in loneliness--and perhaps
Leave in loneliness as well.
But you give him more than soldiers who win medals and pensions,
More than priests who offer absolution
And sweet-smelling ritual,
More than friends who anticipate his death
Or challenge his life,
And your fee is not as costly as most.
You admit that your love is for a fee,
Few women can be as honest.
There are monuments to statesmen who gave nothing to anyone
Except their hungry ego,
Monuments to mothers who turned their children
Into starving, anxious bodies,
Monuments to Lady Liberty who makes poor men prisoners.
I would erect a monument for you--
who give more than most--
And for a meager fee.
Among the lonely, you are perhaps the loneliest of all,
You come so close to love
But it eludes you
While proper women march to church and fantasize
In the silence of their rooms,
While lonely women take their husbands' arms
To hold them on life's surface,
While chattering women fill their closets with clothes and
Their lips with lies,
You offer love for a fee--which is not as costly as most--
And remain a lonely prostitute on a street of pain.
You are not immoral, little Maria, only tired and afraid,
But you are not as hollow as the police who pursue you,
The politicians who jail you, the pharisees who scorn you.
You give what you promise--take your paltry fee--and
Wander on the endless, aching pavements of pain.
You know more of universal love than the nations who thrive on war,
More than the churches whose dogmas are private vendettas made sacred,
More than the tall buildings and sprawling factories
Where men wear chains.
You are a lonely prostitute who speaks to me as I pass,
And I smile at you because I am a lonely man.”
― James Kavanaugh, quote from There Are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves
“What is commonly called 'women's intuition' is mostly a woman's acute ability to notice small details and changes in the appearance or behaviour of others. It's something that, throughout history, has bewildered men who play around - and are invariably caught.”
― Allan Pease, quote from Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps: How We're Different and What to Do About It
“Lucien bent and searched through the scraps of paper at Loki’s stone feet for the blood-kissed prayer Dante had placed among them. Finding it, he plucked it from the pile and straightened.
The fading essence of creawdwr blood magic tingled against his fingers. Unfolding the liquor store receipt, he read the words scrawled in Dante’s lefty slant:
Watch over her, ma mère. S’il te plaît, keep her safe. Even from me.
Lucien reread the prayer until the words blurred. He closed his fingers around the receipt, the paper crinkling against his palm. He had no doubt who she was — Special Agent Heather Wallace.
Wounded, his child, yes. Damaged, yes. But Dante’s heart was whole and in love, it seemed, with a mortal. Perhaps Heather Wallace could bind Dante and help keep his sanity from unraveling.
Insanity. The fate of an unbound creawdwr.”
― Adrian Phoenix, quote from In the Blood
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.