“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.”

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.

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.

Nature is by and large to be found out of doors, a location where, it cannot be argued, there are never enough comfortable chairs.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

In America, it was decided to attempt the production of atomic bombs with an effort that would constitute a large part of the collective American war effort.

The Waste Land not figuring very largely in Mam’s scheme of things. “The thing is,” I said finally, “he won the Nobel Prize.” “Well,” she said, with that unerring grasp of inessentials which is the prerogative of mothers, “I’m not surprised. It was a beautiful overcoat.”

It’s not necessarily a large number of people that affect the culture. You don’t count the number of influential voices, you weigh them. A hundred people can affect the culture.

Any company large enough to have a research lab is too large to listen to it.

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

The number of mistakes I have made are just awesome. There is no number large enough to account for that.