You are too soft, Mr. Molotov.

Hamsun’s reputation was in ruins; not only had he seen Hitler but, in a sickeningly misguided moment earlier that year, he had given Goebbels his Nobel Prize medal. His postwar fate was already under discussion. In November, 1944, in Moscow, Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister, discussed Hamsun’s case with Terje Wold, the Norwegian justice minister in exile, and Trygve Lie, the foreign minister in exile. The author of “Victoria” and “Pan” was too great an artist to be treated like a common Nazi, Molotov said, and, at such an advanced age, should be allowed to die a natural death. Wold replied, in English, “You are too soft, Mr. Molotov.” - In From the Cold / The return of Knut Hamsun.

see also Hamsun cheers for the wrong side (1940)

via Кнут Гамсун, 1936 год, Осло, Норвегия