My father had no sons, so I became queen. The only thing I had to do was perform the role.

Painting is not what my life is about, but it is very important to me, and I am very lucky to be able to give some time to it.

I believe that all the euphoria about Europe has led many of us to forget that Europe is a conglomerate of different entities and countries. But if you don't love your own entity, if you don't know your roots and can no longer relate to them, you will also have problems with the rest of Europe.

A tree without roots will fall over, whereas a tree with roots eventually becomes part of a forest.

The time that I devote to painting is not a lot of time, but I do it 100 percent while I am working, and then there's nothing else that counts.

I would not say Denmark is a multicultural country, but more people live here now who have different roots, backgrounds and religions, more than 30 years ago. This also applies to religions.

Luther and the Reformation were of fundamental importance to Denmark. We Danes are still Lutherans today. We spoke about him a lot in school, and we feel very close to him.

I have always had a dread of becoming a passenger in life.

There are indeed ways for a queen to say what she thinks.

Under the constitution, as the Danish queen I am bound to the Lutheran faith, but that does not exclude people of other faiths.

Luther exerted a strong influence on Denmark. Suddenly Danish theologians were preaching in Danish and translating the Bible into Danish.

I smoke wherever there's an ashtray.

None of my counterparts in Europe interferes in politics.

I am not a career woman, and I would never have become one in normal life, because I am not ambitious enough for that.

In Denmark, the king's faith became the religion of the country, and we are still happy with that today.