I've always been interested in people who think out of their time, and I have this passion, actually, for science. I'm just so enormously interested in how, when you think of these revolutionary ideas, other people get threatened, especially if you are different.

David Lagercrantz

I'm not a secretive guy. I'm talkative.

David Lagercrantz

My father was highbrow: writing long biographies of Dante and stuff like that. Ghostwriting sportsman memoirs? That was sort of the lowest of the low.

David Lagercrantz

A supervillain must continue to exist.

David Lagercrantz

I said from the start I had to be trustful of the Millennium universe. It was not going to be a Stieg Larsson book, but my interpretation of his iconic characters and universe.

David Lagercrantz

The beautiful thing is I have sort of grown up. I don't care if I'm highbrow or not anymore.

David Lagercrantz

A conventional crime story is simple - it's just a corpse in the river or something, and a detective with an alcohol problem.

David Lagercrantz

There is no money in the world that would compensate me for writing a lousy book.

David Lagercrantz

If you have an extreme character, you need normal characters to contrast them. Sherlock Holmes certainly needed a Dr. Watson. And Pippi Longstocking, who supposedly inspired Lisbeth Salander, needed Tommy and Annika, the normal middle-class neighbors.

David Lagercrantz

My father was this huge, influential intellectual in the '60s and '70s. He was one of the main players in the cultural discussion in Sweden, the editor of papers.

David Lagercrantz

I want to be read, and I certainly want to sell, but I also see my father's eye from Heaven: 'Always write quality. It doesn't matter if you sell; if it's good, it's good - if you capture the complexity of life.'

David Lagercrantz

I'm very bad at violence in real life. I can't stand it. And I'm so fed up with crime novels that have too much violence. I can't really do it. It's unnecessary.

David Lagercrantz

I'm an author who likes assignments, who needs suggestions, ideas I would never have thought of otherwise - then something happens inside my alien head. Other people have to decide whether or not I'm a good writer, but I do have the ability to write in different styles.

David Lagercrantz

My life as an author has always been about brilliant, odd people.

David Lagercrantz

I write best when I sort of collide myself with another man. So I think, I hope, that a combination of me and Stieg Larsson will create something good.

David Lagercrantz

I have the deepest respect for Eva Gabrielsson and all she has gone through, but I also know that I make maybe her sad, and I am sad about that, but I make so many other people happy.

David Lagercrantz

I'm ashamed to say that I'm from a very privileged background.

David Lagercrantz

I'm a strange kind of author - I like assignments. I wasn't clever enough to invent an iconic figure like Salander, but she's my kind of girl.

David Lagercrantz

The real demon in my life is my father.

David Lagercrantz

Of course I want to be a best seller because I'm in the business and I want to be read, but there is no money in the world that can compensate for writing badly.

David Lagercrantz

I know I don't want to be Stieg Larsson my whole life.

David Lagercrantz