“It’s strange that the newspapers don’t see a connection between their false revelations about my private life and my need for seclusion and security.”

When I was 15 I became a full-time singer in a band. At 18 I made my first record.

It has always felt like a failure that Bjorn and I couldn’t keep our family together.

When I’m living in the world of luxury and celebrity, which is where I found myself for a large part of my life, it’s a walk-on part.

I can spot empty flattery and know exactly where I stand. In the end it’s really only my own approval or disapproval that means anything.

The reason behind our separation is one of those things I definitely don’t want to go into!

Even when I was still a child I cut out pictures of prams from newspapers and imagined the feeling of pushing my own pram through fresh winter snow and seeing the wheels’ tracks behind me in the snow.

When I record, it feels like I’m in a bubble. There’s nothing else in my head right then.

My life contains so many other things; I have my children, my grandchildren, my two dogs and a big place in the country. I have my own life.

The press has always written that I am a recluse and a mysterious woman, but I am more down-to-earth than they think.

I would like to sing the theme tune of a big film – something like ‘Titanic’.

When you love someone, and you’ve lost that one, then nothing really matters.

My professional persona never loosens its grip, keeping an eye on me at all times.

There was a time when the music fell silent. Both within me and around me.

I have one pug and one Czechoslovakian dog called Prazsky krysarik.

Abba’s last tour was a success but awful for me.

I must be allowed to be as I am.

True’ and ‘false’ are attributes of speech, not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither ‘truth’ nor ‘falsehood.

Numbers on a screen for merit, A falsehood of an ideal you. Roll the dice and pay your price. A great pride in your work you must pursue.

I was so moved by your false affections I was pushed right off the ledge but love didn’t come to find me abandonment did instead.

The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.

Don’t be a slave to modern vices, Chasing false merit, distraction untoward. Take time for yourself, to be alone with your thoughts. Imagination the real reward.

Souls shouldering the burden of false hopes, broken promises, fear like a burning flame. Maybe that’s why each one of us is so different yet the same.

Don’t try to cover your mistakes with false words. Rather, correct your mistakes with examination.

You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also by his desires.