The man who kills the animals today is the man who kills the people who get in his way tomorrow.

When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.

I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated.

When you realize the value of all life, you dwell on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.

The more you learn about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.

I had a wonderful contact, especially with Uncle Bert who was an angel and led the whole group over to my side of a steep ravine I could not cross to get over to them.

It is hard work to give life to new characters every single day. It is not as if I am God. I am just a tired, middle-aged woman trying to keep going.

I'm not a good crime writer. I'm not good with plots... so I have to do something else.

Mankind can be very magnanimous, given the chance.

Successful people are not interesting. I feel for the losers. That's where my heart lies.

I believe I could commit a crime. We all can. It depends on which situations we find ourselves in. In despair, I would steal food if my children were hungry.

I have experienced a murderer among my friends. Many, many years ago. At close range I have seen the impact of it. I knew the victim, I went to the funeral, I have been to the house, to the specific room where the killing took place, and I was stunned by it. It's such a blow.

I use the setting of a small rural Norwegian community - the kind of place that I know so intimately. I could never write a novel set in a big city, because, frankly, I don't know what it would be like.