I must be allowed to be as I am.

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.

I have always had strong maternal instincts. 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.

My path has not been determined. I shall have more experiences and pass many more milestones.

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

This idea of trying to repeat a success doesn't interest me. It's only really done to make money.

I must be allowed to be as I am.

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.

There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection.

It has always felt like a failure that Bjorn and I couldn't keep our family together. You never get it back, but to this day I don't regret splitting up. The reason behind our separation is one of those things I definitely don't want to go into!

I may have aimed too high sometimes, asked too much of myself and demanded too little from those around me.

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

I am uninterested in appearing in newspapers and on television. Many people think I am striking a pose - that I want to create a sense of shyness. But it's just not something I want to do. I overdosed.

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

I just want to live in peace and quiet.

I spend a lot of time with the grandchildren. They love it when we sing together. It's fantastic to hear them, and they really can sing. I don't talk to them so much about 'Abba' and the past, but as they get older, they will become more aware.

I used to suffer from stage fright, which at times was an ordeal. I won't perform live again. I'm going to do some TV shows and videos but nothing else... I don't like to travel too much or do concerts. I'm more of a studio and home girl.

I was so tired once 'Abba' was over and just wanted to be calm and with my children. I married, was in 'Abba,' had my children, divorced, all in ten years. I wonder how I managed it, but I was young.

I would like to sing the theme tune of a big film - something like 'Titanic.'

I'm a country bumpkin. I'm not a showgirl.

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.

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.

Performing live is not my favourite. I am more of a recording person; I prefer to be private. I didn't mind doing videos, even if they came very close with the camera. I can take that, but walking on stage in concert and singing live, that is a bit difficult.

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

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

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

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

Dragon fruit is very subtle, very delicate. So you want to be careful not to kill it with things that have very strong flavor.

I've cheated the Grim Reaper more times than anyone I know.

They travel best in gangs hanging around like clumps of bananas thick skinned and yellow.

Your bat is your life. It's your weapon. You don't want to go into battle with anything that feels less than perfect.

Oh, I wish I organized my books. But I don't. I'm not an organized person. The best I can do is put the books I really like in one sort of general area, and poetry in another.

No sociologist should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time.

I work a little bit like a sculptor. When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. It's not about paper, it's not about forms. It's about space and material.

The women of my generation and my daughter's generation, they were very active in moving along the social change that would result in equal citizenship stature for men and women.

The supreme good of life is vitality. And vitality is always seeping away.

America is not only big and rich, it is mysterious; and its capacity for the humorous or ironical concealment of its interests matches that of the legendary inscrutable Chinese.

I always have a will to write. It's organic to me.

Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way it becomes your friend for life.

So must the writer, whose productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould.

The thing about Mumbai is you go five yards and all of human existence is revealed. It's an incredible cavalcade of life, and I love that.

It is in the public interest to know what our governors are up to. If they are up to doing good, then they are only too happy to let us know. When they are up to no good, they want that kept secret.

I found that it wasn't so oddball to like music and poetry and visual arts, they're kindred spirits.

Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues?

I love myself exactly as I am.

I think my love of music comes from my dad. I was born with an ear for music, like him, and started with the piano when I was 4 but fell in love with the drums. My dad always has music playing.

Everyone has a past.

Sunlight is painting.

I will not say anything about my father. Period. I don't have a dad.