Maj Sjowall quotes

Maj Sjöwall was a Swedish author and translator, best known for her influential crime novels co-written with Per Wahlöö. Together, they created the famous Martin Beck series, which played a major role in shaping modern Scandinavian crime fiction. She is remembered as a pioneer whose work set the standard for Nordic noir. Here are 8 of her quotes:

People read more mysteries than they do political pamphlets.

Maj Sjowall

I like Jo Nesbo and Hakan Nesser. There are so many good books in the world. I don't want to spend time reading bad crime novels.

Maj Sjowall

You get tough when you grow up unloved. People described me as a boyish girl - rather shy, but I didn't show it. I had an attitude. I was rather wild. I lied a lot because I knew the alternative was to be punished. As I got older I realised I didn't have to lie any more and it was a nice feeling. I could be myself.

Maj Sjowall

We wanted to describe society from our Left point of view. Per had written political books, but they'd only sold 300 copies. We realised that people read crime and through the stories we could show the reader that under the official image of welfare-state Sweden there was another layer of poverty, criminality and brutality.

Maj Sjowall

When I was 11, I realised that I did not have to live the life my mother had: school, marriage, children, apartment, summer house.

Maj Sjowall

Sweden is a small country, and a Swedish writer can barely make a living as an author. We were able to quit our jobs as journalists only after we had been translated into, among others, German.

Maj Sjowall

There were many films made for both cinema and television, and in general I don't connect them very much with our books. I have one favorite: 'The Man on the Roof' by director Bo Widerberg, which was based on 'The Abominable Man.'

Maj Sjowall