“ The very worst events in life have that effect on a family: we always remember, more sharply than anything else, the last happy moments before everything fell apart. Fredrik Backman
“ Mum is a perfectionist and Dad is a pedant and that was partly why their marriage didn't work so well, Elsa figures. Because a perfectionist and a pedant are two very different things. Fredrik Backman
“ Don't people get married because they're full of love and then divorced when they run out of it?" (Elsa)"Did you learn that one in school?" (Mom)"It's my own theory." (Elsa) Fredrik Backman
“ One of the first things you learn as a leader, whether you choose the position of have it forced upon you, is that leadership is as much about what you don't say as what you do say. Fredrik Backman
“ The worst thing about having power over other people's lives is that you sometimes get things wrong. Fredrik Backman
“ Around them, the dawn gently wakes Borg like someone breathing into the ear of someone they love. With sun and promises. Tickling light falls over warm duvets, like the smell of freshly brewed coffee… Fredrik Backman
“ Or that time she made a snowman in Britt-Marie and Kent’s garden right under their balcony and dressed it up in grown-up clothes so it looked as if a person had fallen from the roof. Fredrik Backman
“ You can love something without loving everything about it. You don't have to feel embarrassed about not being proud. That applies to hockey, but it also applies to friends. Fredrik Backman
“ Ove çould not in all honesty remember how it all started. It wasn't the sort of dispute where you did remember. It was more an argument where the little disagreements had ended up so entangled that ev… Fredrik Backman
“ In the beginning the queen had been a courageous and fair-minded princess very much liked by all, but unfortunately she grew up and became a frightened adult, as adults tend to be. She started loving… Fredrik Backman
“ It's strange how quickly the significance of of a certain smell can change, depending on what path it decides to take through the brain. It's strange how close love and fear live to each other. Fredrik Backman
“ Just because you don’t like peanut butter doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t like . . . peanuts. Fredrik Backman
“ Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it's often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live… Fredrik Backman
“ Sometimes it's easier to go on living, not even knowing who you are, when at least you know precisely where you are while you go on not knowing. Fredrik Backman
“ We have to do it for my mum's sake. Because I'm hoping that the last sorry will be to her. Fredrik Backman
“ Soccer forces life to move on. There’s always a new match. A new season. There’s always a dream that everything can get better. It’s a game of wonders. Fredrik Backman
“ The women glare at each other. Grin. You have friends when you're fifteen years old. Sometimes you get them back. Fredrik Backman
