In the Nordic countries, there are hardly any societal problems, but we writers are bloodthirsty people like anyone else, so we have to quench this thirst with literature. If you live in a mafia state with lots of violence on the streets, you tend to write beautiful poetry.

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 Nordic countries are leading the way on women's equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale.

The New Nordic diet originated in 2004, when the visionary chefs Rene Redzepi and Claus Meyer called a symposium of regional chefs to address the public's increasing consumption of processed foods, additives, highly refined grains, and mass-produced poultry and meat.

I was cast in 'Thor' and I'm cast as a Nordic god. If you know anything about the Nords they don't look like me but there you go. I think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see multi-level casting. I think we will see that and I think that's good.

The Nordic countries are leading the way on women's equality recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale.