“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.”

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.

No one who has experienced facing a screaming, boiling, hysterical audience can avoid feeling shivers in the spine. It’s a thin line between celebration and menace.

I am uninterested in appearing in newspapers and on television.

When I was 25, Abba was formed. After Abba I made three solo albums. Maybe I have been productive enough.

I have always had strong maternal instincts.

You never get it back, but to this day I don’t regret splitting up.

It’s just that song, and I’m trying to really sound like what the song is about.

Not a vital necessity, like it is for so many people. I enjoy it but I can see right through it!

To an observer situated on the moon or on one of the planets, the most noticeable feature on the surface of our globe would no doubt be the large areas covered by oceanic water.

I’ve turned down shows offering large amounts of money.

People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will find a way to keep ancestral spirits alive.

I’m not against extracting a modest amount of wildlife out of the ocean for human consumption, but I am really concerned about the large-scale industrial fishing that engages in destructive practices like trawling and longlining.

By the end of the 20th century, up to 90 percent of the sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins, groupers, turtles, whales, and many other large creatures that prospered in the Gulf for millions of years had been depleted by overfishing.

Large areas of the Gulf have escaped being scraped by trawls, crushed by more than 40,000 miles of pipelines, or displaced by one of 50,000 oil and gas wells drilled since the middle of the 20th century. Some places have been deliberately protected.

Morality arose largely as an empirical defence of the individual and society.

We have quite a large area, and that makes it more fun for us – certainly more satisfying, because it doesn’t restrict us to one particular idea or one particular style.