Halldor Laxness quotes:

I spent my entire childhood in an environment in which the mighty of the earth had no place outside story books and dreams.

From the very first, my countrymen have followed my literary career, now criticizing, now praising my work, but hardly ever letting a single word be buried in indifference.

Icelanders are grateful to meet foreigners who have heard of their country. And even more grateful to hear someone say it deserves better.

It is a matter of simple fact that Icelanders have always been notoriously indolent.

I feel a physical happiness when spring is coming.

One boy's footprints are not long in being lost in the snow, in the steadily falling snow of the shortest day, the longest night; they are lost as soon as they are made. And once again the heath is clothed in drifting white. And there is no ghost, save the one ghost that lives in the heart of a motherless boy, till his footprints disappear."

That blasted family could never look at a living thing without wanting to make a profit out of it, preferably by killing it.