Don't believe those who claim that only left wing parties really care about employment.

Knowledge of other people's beliefs and ways of thinking must be used to build bridges, not to create conflicts.

We have to find compromises. That's the way it is in Norway.

Extremists and populist movements are exploiting people's fear of those who are not like us. We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence.

We must never relinquish the vision of a humane society and a humane world.

We have a good life when we manage to live with both satisfied and unsatisfied needs, when we are not obsessed by what is beyond our reach.

Terrorism is contempt for human dignity.

Human dignity is independent of national borders. We must always defend the interests of the poor and the persecuted in other countries.

We must remember that politics is more than a power game. The core of politics in my view is to serve our citizens, to serve our fellow human beings.

Unfortunately, religion, like patriotism, is easy to misuse for political purposes.

It is typically Norwegian to be good

Once you go silent everyone starts misinterpreting what your silence says.

We spend a good part of our lives trying desperately to convince ourselves as well as everybody else that we know more than we really do.

Death is not soft-mouthed, vague-footed, nearby. It is in the hall.

People were actually approaching me on the street and thinking that I was an athlete. They couldn't quite place it, but a runner, or swimmer or something.

I don't want to be understood because if people understand me, they get tired of me.

Sadness isn't sadness. It's happiness in a black jacket. Tears are not tears. They're balls of laughter dipped in salt. Death is not death. It's life that's jumped off a tall cliff.

To be silent is but a small virtue; but it is a serious fault to reveal secrets.

We dream of the perfect wave, the perfect job, the perfect house. When we get there, we dream of something else.

Well I don't think I've scored my life exclusively to Ray Charles.

Paul sees all kinds of sins in himself and all kinds of accomplishments too, but he refuses to connect them with his identity.