Margrethe Vestager

“I remember when I cut my hair. I used to have hair to my shoulders. Immediately, people said, 'Oh, but that's the power cut. Now she looks like a man.'”

“If I had a motto, it would be, 'Believe in God, fear the church'.”

“If you want things done, you need to be able to find solutions.”

“In Europe, we would congratulate anyone who is successful. But congratulations stop if we find that you start to misuse a dominant position.”

“If you're successful in the market, it should be because you have the best products. Then your customers like you, not because then you cut corners, or you get a tax break, or you don't inform authorities about how things actually are.”

“Part of being not only a liberal but also a human is to make your own decisions.”

“Planning is like taking on blinders. I think it is a wise thing to be open to whatever shows up on your doorstep.”

“Most politicians are either generalists or specialists. It's very rare that a politician is both.”

“I think it is one of the fundamentals, not only of the European Union but also of free trade, that competition is fair.”

“In Europe, we have three tools when it comes to fair competition. One is antitrust, one is merger control, and the third is state aid control. And the third you don't have in the States.”

“I'm quite enthusiastic about any kind of gadget and app and feature and things that enable me to have a very convenient lifestyle. We buy our groceries on the Internet; I buy furniture, clothes for myself and my kids.”

“I don't think much about politics as such because it has no room in our working processes. Eventually, our cases will have to stand up in court. And court will hear nothing about politics.”

“It is very important, to have a robust digital economy, that the citizens regain the trust in how their data are being processed and who can access them.”

“A huge part of Apple profits generated in Europe, in African countries, Middle East, and India were all booked in Ireland. And I think it is a very basic principle in taxation that your profits are taxed where the profits are generated.”

“When I was very young and came into politics, I basically thought ideas would do the trick.”

“I think I am like anyone else. I respect other people and, of course, I expect that it works the other way around.”

“I have a very strong tool in competitional enforcement: To do merger control, to look into cartels, misuse of dominant position - when member states hand out favors, for instance, in terms of tax breaks. But even though that's a strong tool, it cannot solve everything.”

“Technology is, in many respects, an enabler for an open, transparent society. But it's also an enabler for supervision to a completely unforeseen degree. And for commercialising personal space to an unforeseen degree.”

“When a government gives special tax treatment to a few companies, that makes it hard for anyone else to compete on equal terms.”

“The list of plane reservations I keep on my phone - it's very, very, very long.”