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Q.What trait do you most admire in Swedenborg?A. Consistency, a strong will and the unity of his life.

If he were alive today...I would give him my biography, and ask for his opinion.

Heaven or Hell? Heaven or Hell? Heaven, for me, if that is what you mean, is to be productive, having the feeling that I have finally understood something. A detail, a person, a context. Hell...a vacuum.

My inspiration for writing Swedenborg’s Secret was…after many years of study I felt at home with Swedenborg and wanted to describe him, and his context, handling his secret as well as I could.

What are you working on now? I have just published a book on Linnaeus’ The Fundaments of Botany, published in 1735. I would like to continue with Linnaeus, a relative of Swedenborg, as you know. Now, I am making a catalogue of Linnaeus’ life through a catalogue of his works. At the same time I will try some kind of memoirs, with André Tarkovsky’s The Mirror as the ideal.

How would you like Swedenborg to be remembered? As a man who, through all his life, emphasized the necessary link between life and faith and the existential character of all deep understanding.

Lars Bergquist, author of best selling and critically acclaimed biography Swedenborg’s Secret, has published numerous novels and books in Sweden and several books in English on Swedenborg, among them The Dream Diary. He is also a former Swedish diplomat whose postings included Paris, Moscow, Warsaw, London, Peking and Rome.