Quotes from Morten Harket

The video was of paramount importance, because 'Take on Me' was not an instant hit.

If you respond to pop music as an older person, then it's your game. But this business has a tremendously visual focus.

A-ha is not me, Paul, or Magne: it is its own individual that has its own identity and characteristics. It is a result of a particular meeting point between the three of us.

We've never been very good at servicing fans. I'm here to concentrate on music, not to be a pen pal to people who write to me.

Since I travel so much, my perfect Sunday would start by waking up at home with my partner Inez. We'd have breakfast with our little girl Karmen, maybe in our garden.

If looks help, that's great, but we don't want it to be the featured thing. It's totally superficial.

My brother was an avid Stoke City fan and a good footballer. We shared a room, growing up, and the walls were covered with 1970s Stoke players, like Peter Shilton, Gordon Banks, and Jimmy Greenhoff.

The pin-up thing took us completely by surprise. I found it hard because I got singled out, and I didn't like it. There was a lot of disillusionment.

Although I would like to describe the perfect day, I can't. Because a perfect day is one where there is no plan.

We wanted the freedom to be playful, to experiment and do what we felt like doing, but we were heavily affected by the success that the first record gave us.

I can choose to be a serious musician, but the sex symbol part is not up to me.

If I didn't travel so much, maybe my perfect Sunday would be skin diving on a coral reef - not scuba diving, as skin diving is more physical, and I prefer the lightness of it. Skin diving means wearing just goggles. Oh, I could wear some trunks, maybe.

Fun is only possible if you have a mindset that allows it.

The record company didn't know what we looked like at first. They were all excited about our tapes.

I do respond to the ideas behind the Eurovision and 'The X Factor,' but they're both so limiting and very, very shallow.

I am naturally prone to fun or to be funny, but when I talk about myself in interviews, then it's an intellectual exercise.

We didn't feel we fitted into the '80s.

We sent a guy called Terry Slater a couple of demos, using the last of our money. And then things turned. He landed us a deal with Warners and said just keep coming up with songs, because when success hits you, you won't even know your name.

People have a wild response to something, and they want it. Sometimes people lose themselves.

The hardest thing to have is success, because it seems to tell people what you are. But it doesn't.

I had always wanted to make music on a big scale but never knew how it was going happen - until I saw a band in Oslo called Bridges. I was stunned. They had everything. The only thing they didn't have was me. I knew I needed to join, not for my own sake but for the band's. I knew I was a necessary ingredient.

One of the good things about being away is to digest things and maybe learn from things and see if there are better ways to get to where you want to be.

We wanted to come to London because it's the hardest place to make it.

I do love beauty. I love beautiful tilings. I grow orchids and collect butterflies. But when it comes to relationships, you have to find the person inside.