BJORN ULVAEUS

The music of ABBA is not that happy. It might sound happy, in some strange way, but deep within, it's not happy music. It has that Nordic melancholic feeling to it. What fools you is the girls' voices. You know, I do think that is one of the secrets about ABBA. Even when we were really quite sad, we always sounded jubilant.

The UN declaration on human rights must always be first in line before religion or other cultural habits, in case of any conflict between them.

I'm so incredibly tired of giving respect to a lot of delusions and crazy ideas just because they are regarded as religions.

There are still many places I haven't seen that I'd like to travel to. I've never seen the Pyramids, and I'd love to explore the culture in North India. I think walking in the Andes would also be awesome.

I believe that religion should be totally separated from the state. That's not the way it is today, not even in Sweden.

I used to look so immature, like a young man without self-confidence. There was one particular light blue, shiny cape outfit I wore that still makes me cringe.

I believe that religious faith schools are highly dubious.

All these years later, I have almost no memory of the shows themselves. It's a blur. I remember my jogging runs better - that was my way of getting my energy together. I used to try to get to the arena as late as possible; otherwise, I'd just be pacing around, waiting to go on.

Religion is the root of so much misery in the world, and I've always thought there is lack of criticism against it.

Lennon and McCartney have the best catalogue of songs ever produced. It will never be surpassed.

Folk music is where I come from originally. The very first thing that introduced me to playing guitars at all was skiffle - my cousin had been in London the summer that skiffle was big.

Cultural variety is always worth striving for, but must never precede the declaration of human rights.

The story of Jesus is very fascinating. It still has such a tremendous power, even after 2,000 years! We don't really know if he existed as a historical figure.

If that doomsday scenario happens, will it help if you have heaps of paper money? I don't think so.

Well mostly in song writing my experience is that there isn't so much inspiration as hard work. You sit there for hours, days and weeks with a guitar and piano until something good comes.

I hear a really good pop song every now and then. 'ROAR' by Katy Perry, I love that! 'Poker Face'... Oh! What a song! And 'Rolling in the Deep'... Oh!

Wild horses couldn't drag me away from a summer on the Stockholm archipelago.

It could be seen as narcissistic to have your own museum, but for me, it's such a long time ago - I have perspective. That young man in the funny clothes - he's almost a stranger, so I can tell his story.

People ask me if I am going to write my memoirs. But even if I wanted to, I would not be able. I have extremely few memories.

In the beginning of my career, I wanted to be chased by girls more than anything - that's why I got the guitar. By the time we were in ABBA, the music was the only important thing.

I want people to remember ABBA as we were. I don't think that four geriatrics wheeled on stage is what we should leave as our legacy.

And also a lot of Muslims are no more religious then the average Swede. For them it's natural that human rights come first.

Of course, we wore silly outfits, the pictures were corny, and some people still focus on that. But ABBA wasn't a big intellectual thing. We were a pop group.

In a way, I'm kind of a bystander looking at this phenomenon that is ABBA, which is still around, and that I thought would be finished in 1981 and forgotten. I'm amazed how this could happen, and I don't know why it happened. I'm just grateful and humble. I just sit back and enjoy.

Before the Beatles, songwriters were very anonymous people and nobody paid any attention to them.