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When someone asks me to list the 10 best novels ever written, I always refuse to answer.

Henning Mankell

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Henning Mankell
Age: 67 †
Born: 1948
Born: February 3
Died: 2015
Died: October 5
Crime Writer
Film Director
Human Rights Activist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Writer
Sthlm
Henning Georg Mankell
Best
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Ever
Refuse
Always
Answer
Novel
Answers
Written
Asks
Novels
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More quotes by Henning Mankell

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You think you know everything about a person, but the truth often comes as a surprise.
Henning Mankell
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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.
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I do not understand how on earth you can become a writer without seeing the world.
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Each person searches for the most beautiful jump which will be the final before leaving this world.
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The stories I create are never as awful as reality.
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When one historical period is replaced by another, there is always a group of people left over from the old society
Henning Mankell
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An oppressed people will always rise.
Henning Mankell
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I am fascinated by all the new technology that creates places for us to meet in what is called cyberspace. I understand what it must have meant for the rebellions in the 19th century, especially in 1830 and 1848, when the mass circulated newspaper became so important for the spreading of information.
Henning Mankell
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Life is a flimsy branch over an abyss.
Henning Mankell
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What annoys a person who suicides? The life itself. Boredom. Tiredness that descends on every morning when you look at yourself at the mirror.
Henning Mankell
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One of the agonies of being an author is to know when to stop writing.
Henning Mankell
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Every secret we confide in another person can be a burden to them
Henning Mankell
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Children get acquainted with each other in a special way, they do not make contracts as adults, they believe each other or not. Childish friendships often end in violence. You may become an enemy all of a sudden as well as notice that you are someone's best friend.
Henning Mankell
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Poverty always looks the same, no matter where you come across it. The rich can always express their opulence by varying their lives. Different houses, clothes, cars. Or thoughts, dreams. But for the poor there is nothing but compulsory grayness, the only form of expression available to poverty.
Henning Mankell
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They pondered the importance of coffee in silence.
Henning Mankell
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Our exile organizations have been our way of replacing the cities and villages we have lost.
Henning Mankell
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It struck me as I listened to those two men that a truer nomination (name) for our species than Homo sapiens might be Homo narrans, the storytelling person. What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats–and they in turn can listen to ours.
Henning Mankell
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It’s only when we can work with something that brings out our strengths that we’re of any real use.
Henning Mankell
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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
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Not having time for a person, not being able to sit in silence together with somebody, that's the same as rejecting them, as being scornful about them.
Henning Mankell