The sum of all vices does not remain constant. Each one breeds another.

All great characters, great icons, in literature are a bit of a riddle, and that's the reason we go back to them over and over.

What is there left once you have lost your manliness?

The beautiful thing is I have sort of grown up. I don't care if I'm highbrow or not anymore.

If you have an extreme character, you need normal characters to contrast them. Sherlock Holmes certainly needed a Dr. Watson. And Pippi Longstocking, who supposedly inspired Lisbeth Salander, needed Tommy and Annika, the normal middle-class neighbors.

A conventional crime story is simple - it's just a corpse in the river or something, and a detective with an alcohol problem.