Fredrik came into the living room a little paler than usual, a little tired after the hard work of recent times on the political articles. This work had cost him far more effort than all his scientific dissertations. He was not a politician, he had never been much interested in politics.

In our country a new and different spirit has come, it is not only the farmer who is working more than before with his hands in his pockets, it is everyone, the entire population. The craftsman, the day laborer, the maidservant have settled down to a rude indifference to promises, to agreements, to duties, which was unknown and unheard of in earlier times. ("A Word to Us", 1910)

More agriculture in Norway. But not agriculture with state subsidies. These are theories of lawyers who live off politics. Agriculture with personal work and personal ambition in this work – that is what is needed. ("Letter to Klassekampen", 1916)

Knut Hamsun was born as Knud Pedersen in Gudbrandsdalen on August 4, 1859. Three years later, the family moved to Hamarøy in Nordland. Hamarøy became Hamsun's childhood home. Here he grew up, and here his sense of home took root – a sense of patriotism in a small way.

Markens Grøde (1917), a novel about finding one's place, putting down roots and running a farm, was written while the author was on the move. The story of Sellanraa can be read as Hamsun's dream of the place he wanted for himself and his family, where he, as Isak, managed to combine the roles of father, husband, farmer and family provider.

"The year is 1945. On May 26, the police chief in Arendal came to Nørholm and ordered my wife and I under house arrest for 30 days. I was not notified. My wife handed over my firearms to him upon request. I then had to write to the police chief afterwards that I also had two large pistols from the last Olympics in Paris, he could pick them up whenever he wanted."

“The place you come from is always beautiful, it is the feeling of homeland in a small way, the feeling of home. (“Farmer”, 1918)”

"When people show up at the pier for the coastal boat, it gives them no income but also no expense, it balances out, perhaps with a deduction for a little shoe wear. It doesn't exactly hurt, but it's rare that someone has a little left over for it. A special experience, a sight for the gods, some true blessing? No, no! Some people and boxes ashore, some people and boxes aboard. Nobody says anything, neither the mate at the row nor the clerk on the quay need a single word, they look at the papers and nod. That's it."

"The third generation now rules in Jensen's large hardware store at Segelfoss. The founder was Per Jensen, called Per på bua, it continued with his son Theodor, Theodor på bua, who ran it very widely and became a pot and pan and a progressive man in the town. It's not that long ago, people remember him well, he was at the same time as the old lieutenant's son, the one who only cared about music and didn't become anything."

"The polden is developing. There were a couple of good herring years and the common people flocked to this new place, Pauline at the kramboden did business well and steadily, she was skilled and found solutions, there was a spirit of trade in her."

"Two men came trudging north from the neighboring farm, they were dark-faced and had thin, gray beards, one of them carried a wind instrument on his back. No one in the whole hamlet had expected anything special from this day, but then these two strangers appeared, they stepped forward in a conspicuous place between the houses, put the wind instrument on a stake and began to play."

"Yes, we are vagabonds on the earth. We wander the roads and howl, sometimes we crawl, sometimes we walk upright and trample each other down. Like Daniel, he trampled down and was himself trampled down."

"People from the big cities have no appreciation for the measurements and dimensions of small towns. They think they can come and stand in the square and smile and be superior, they think they can laugh at the houses and the paving, they say that many times. But don't older people in small towns remember when the houses were even smaller and the paving worse than it is now?"

"There are many who write about the Norwegian Language and the Retskrivningkomitee now about Dagen, Sakligheten and Spirrevippen, Løvland and Anathon Aal, Stortingsmen and Professors, Editors and Actors. Almost everyone agrees that we should destroy the Language, it is the pace of the Thing they are arguing about."

"The long, long path over the marshes and into the forests, who has drawn it up? Man, the human being, the first to be here. There was no path before him. Then an animal or two followed the faint tracks over the moors and marshes and made them clearer, and then again an occasional skunk began to sniff out the path and walk it when he went from mountain to mountain and looked for his reindeer. Thus the path was made through the great common that no one owned, the untamed land."

"A man on the new flagpole, and what is he doing there? It's probably a prank by Theodor on the boat again, but his father, old Per on the boat, should have known! Look, Mr. Holmengraa, the owner of the mill, he had a flagpole and a flag and a flagman, it was reasonable and necessary, he was supposed to fly the flag for the mail ships and when a large freighter came into the dock with grain for the mill."

"The entire hamlet was once one property, and what is now the Segelfoss farm was the headquarters. At that time, Segelfoss was, by Nordic standards, a whole estate of fifty cows, and it also had a sawmill, a gristmill, a brickyard and many miles of forest."

"Now I have gone into the woods. Not for that, I am not offended by anything or particularly hurt by the wickedness of men; but when the woods do not come to me I must go to them. That is how it is. This time I have not gone out as a slave and a vagabond. I am rich and overfed, drowsy with prosperity, with luck, do you understand? I left the world as a sultan leaves fat food and harem and flowers and puts on his hair shirt."

"BLUMENSCHØN: Be careful now, Irene. GIRL: Sure. BLUMENSCHØN: Yes, you say sure, but. GIRL: They told me to hurry too. BLUMENSCHØN: Yes, I did. The man could be here any minute. He's the one who's going to buy the things. GIRL: Are you going to sell everything now? BLUMENSCHØN: No, don't touch that watch so hard. It's the only one of my watches that goes for a few minutes."

"There will certainly be a lot of berries this year. Cranberries, lingonberries and cloudberries. Not for that, you can't live off berries. But it's nice that they're there in the field and are pleasing to the eye. And many times they're also refreshing to find when you're thirsty and hungry. I was thinking about this last night."