I've never known justice to be used for anything other than the taking of poor men's lives. That's why I'm begging you, since you know how to speak t… - Halldór Laxness

It's both ludicrous and embarrassing to recall one's youth.

I wonder what my grandfather Björn of Brekkukot really thought what Latin was? Did he think it was the magic Sesame which opened all cliffs in Iceland? If so, I am not at all sure that he was all that far from the truth. Where fish leaves off in Iceland, Latin takes over.

I hope that famous critics will not class me with certain devotees of death and doom if I say here that I think that funerals in our churchyard gave me more entertainment than most other things when I was a little boy.