Smilla's Sense of Snow; final group of quotes

"A breakdown doesn't necessarily have to be a collapse; it can also take the form of a quiet slide into resignation."

"I've never liked the dark. I've never understood the Danish penchant for wandering around at night. Taking a stroll in pitch darkness. Nightingale walks in the woods. Insisting on gazing at the stars. Nighttime orienteering.

You have to respect the dark. Night is the time when space simmers with evil and peril. You can call it superstitious. You can call it fear of the dark. But it's ridiculous to pretend that the night is just like the day, simply without light. Night is the time to huddle together indoors."

"He is the quintessential Dane, with his fear, his iron resolve to repress what's happening around him. And his indomitable optimism."

(Peter Hoeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow)

Don't get mad at me, the author is Danish

"I've always been fascinated by the melancholy shamelessness with which Danes accept the enormous gap between their common sense and their actions."

(Peter Hoeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow)

First impressions

"It's difficult to judge his age. From Elsa Lubing I know that he must be over seventy. But he looks healthy and athletic, as if every morning he walks barefoot across his beachfront and down to the sea, where he saws a hole in the ice and takes a refreshing dip, then runs back and eats a little bowl of gladiator muesli with skim milk."

(Peter Hoeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow)

Ha! I'm not the only one

"I don't like talking on the phone. I want to see whom I'm talking to."

(Peter Hoeg, Smilla's Sense of Snow)