Quotes from book
The Atom Station

The Atom Station
Halldór LaxnessOriginal title Atómstöðin (Icelandic, 1948)

The Atom Station is a novel by Icelandic author Halldór Laxness, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955. The initial print run sold out on the day it was published, for the first time in Icelandic history.

Halldór Laxness photo

“All that you ask for, you shall have.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

Bui Arland
Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

Halldór Laxness photo

“In actual fact, no man is honest when sober; in actual fact, you cannot believe a single word that a sober man says. I wish I were drunk myself.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

Bui Arland
Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

Halldór Laxness photo

“Dust, who is not dust? I am dust. But I am your Member of Parliament, nevertheless.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

Bui Arland
Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

Halldór Laxness photo

“The words themselves say least of all, if in fact they say anything; what really informs us is the inflection of the voice (and no less so if it is restrained), the breathing, the heartbeat, the muscles round the mouth and eyes, the dilation and conctraction of the pupils, the strength or the weakness in the knees, as well as the chain of mysterious reactions in the nerves and the secretions from hidden glands whose names one never knows even though one has read about them in books; all that is the essence of a conversation—the words are more or less incidental.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

Halldór Laxness photo

“I swear—swear—swear: by everything which is and has been sacred to this nation from the beginning: Iceland shall not be sold.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

the Prime Minister
Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

Halldór Laxness photo

“Flowers are immortal. You cut them in autumn and they grow again in spring—somewhere.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

the organist
Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)

Halldór Laxness photo

“Dear darling Americans, Jesus let them come with the atom bomb quick.”

Halldór Laxness book The Atom Station

Cleopatra
Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) (1948)