Annie Lennox quotes:

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  • We all fight over what the label 'feminism' means but for me it's about empowerment. It's not about being more powerful than men - it's about having equal rights with protection, support, justice. It's about very basic things. It's not a badge like a fashion item.

  • Most women are dissatisfied with their appearance - it's the stuff that fuels the beauty and fashion industries.

  • I have a reputation for being cold and aloof, but I'm so not that woman. I'm passionate. I love my girls, being with my girlfriends, getting involved with issues that affect other women and children who are suffering.

  • I can't understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven't really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa - 60 percent of people in - infected with HIV are women.

  • Nelson Mandela is awe inspiring - a person who really sacrificed for what he believed in. I feel truly humbled by him.

  • Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.

  • Fear paralyses you - fear of flying, fear of the future, fear of leaving a rubbish marriage, fear of public speaking, or whatever it is.

  • The general population still thinks HIV is something that came in the 80s and went away, or that it only affects the gay population or intravenous drug users.

  • The inner world is very potent for me - I don't ascribe to any God or Jesus or Buddha - I just have a sense of it and revere it along with the natural world and human consciousness.

  • Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.

  • I sang a lot as a little girl and entered competitions. I loved singing in choirs, but it was as I got older that I really found my voice.

  • For me, pointing and clicking my phone is absolutely fine. People say that isn't the art of photography but I don't agree.

  • I mean, I'm 48 years old and I've been through a lot in my life - you know, loss, whether it be death, illness, separation. I mean, the failed expectations... We all have dreams.

  • I used to be obsessed about how I presented myself. I didn't want other people dressing me because I didn't want to be treated like a clothes horse.

  • I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community, I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me.

  • Please don't ask me for the actual answer to anything, because I don't have it. Because all I do is look at stuff and ask questions. What can I say? I just think the world's barking mad. Look, I'm not an expert. I'm just an ordinary person.

  • I'm appalled the word feminism has been denigrated to a place of almost ridicule and I very passionately believe the word needs to be revalued and reintroduced with power and understanding that this is a global picture.

  • I'm not particularly attention-seeking.

  • I will go out of my way to avoid the shopping crowds and the extreme consumerism - I hate all that.

  • If you want to open a supermarket chain and put your face all around the globe, selling your baby and your dog, if it makes you happy, who am I to disagree, as the song goes. But it's not for me. I've always tried to keep my integrity and keep my autonomy.

  • Charity is a fine thing if it's meeting a gap where needs must be met and there are no other resources. But in the long term we need to support people into helping themselves.

  • When I look at the majority of my own songs they really came from my own sense of personal confusion or need to express some pain or beauty - they were coming from a universal and personal place.

  • I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry. I want to see my children grow up well.

  • I'm from a working-class background, and I've experienced that worry of not having a job next week because the unions are going on strike.

  • Life is not quantifiable in terms of age, but I suppose in my fifties I am more grounded and more at ease in my own skin than when I was younger. I have a confidence that I didn't have before from the experiences I've had.

  • I have a calling in my soul, if you like, to try to make my life in some way worthwhile. What is the value of my existence?

  • Anita Roddick was amazing. Her presence in a room was full of light, and everything she worked to achieve still resonates now.

  • I'd rather support the issues I truly believe in than give my vote to parties that court votes at the time of the election. I like to think that my vote strengthens the green foundation stone.

  • The person who inspired me the most was a friend of mine, Anita Roddick. I know that Anita wasn't known to be an ardent feminist, but she truly was.

  • I'm from a working-class background, and I've experienced that worry of not having a job next week because the unions are going on strike. I know that because I don't come from a wealthy background.

  • The future hasn't happened yet and the past is gone. So I think the only moment we have is right here and now, and I try to make the best of those moments, the moments that I'm in.

  • Money is a good thing and it's obviously useful, but to work only for money or fame would never interest me.

  • Music is an extraordinary vehicle for expressing emotion - very powerful emotions. That's what draws millions of people towards it. And, um, I found myself always going for these darker places and - people identify with that.

  • I was born in 1954. My parents were brought up in the war years, and life was hard.

  • As a creative person, you just put something out into the consciousness of the society you live in.

  • I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.

  • I haven't lived my life through my daughters. Some parents devote everything to their children, which must be so hard, and it's very beautiful. But I'm a working parent, so I've always kept my own life.

  • If we value what we've inherited for free - from other women - surely it's right morally and ethically for us to wake up and say, 'I'm a feminist. '

  • As a mother, you have that impulse to wish that no child should ever be hurt, or abused, or go hungry, or not have opportunities in life.

  • I think my daughters have a pretty healthy self-awareness but I can't speak on their behalf.

  • Churches, depending on their policy, can do fantastic work with people in the community.

  • People ask me so many questions.

  • Men need to understand, and women too, what feminism is really about.

  • I love to be individual, to step beyond gender.

  • There is a big difference between what I do onstage and what I do in my private life. I don't put my living room on magazine pages.

  • I would like to see the gay population get on board with feminism. It's a beautiful organisation and they've done so much. It seems to me a no-brainer.

  • I don't have any interest to go to Israel. I don't think I'd ever have a cause to go.

  • I've always tried to keep my integrity and keep my autonomy.

  • Women's issues have always been a part of my life.

  • I don't feel there are enough women artists out there who are saying anything of tremendous relevance.

  • I want people to start thinking about what it means to be HIV-positive and to ask questions about that.

  • You just decide what your values are in life and what you are going to do, and then you feel like you count, and that makes life worth living. It makes my life meaningful.

  • Why are we not valuing the word 'feminism' when there is so much work to be done in terms of empowerment and emancipation of women everywhere?

  • Life expectancy in many parts of Africa can be something around the age of thirty five to thirty eight. I mean you're very fortunate if you live to that age. In fact when I went to Uganda for the first time one of the things that occurred to me was that I saw very few elderly people.

  • I was perceiving myself as good as a man or equal to a man and as powerful and I wanted to look ambiguous because I thought that was a very interesting statement to make through the media. And it certainly did cause quite a few ripples and interest and shock waves.

  • The contrast of the world that we live in and the world that is here in Aspen and the world inhabited by women who have no resources, little or no, very few resources - huge disparity.

  • Women empowering other women.They get the psycho-social support. They become part of a community.

  • I knew that I wanted to be a singer/songwriter when I was much younger and, um, I've been able to, you know, to realize that dream and I'm very pleased with that...I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry...Music is an extraordinary vehicle for expressing emotion-very powerful emotions.

  • What's really interesting is when you get a brand-new wave that has no connection to anything else. It always reflects society. The flappers would cut the dresses and make them looser, they smoked, their hair was short. It was a rebellion against the corset and the Edwardian era.

  • I didn't want to be perceived as a girly girl on stage.

  • I grew up in a middle class household with parents, went to good schools, and never feared for anything, never wanted for anything that was really important. For all of us living in this world, all of us who have the resources, for us to not dedicate ourselves to giving something back, is to leave the world a lesser place.

  • Medicine comes with hope: the hope of having a healthy child, the hope of being able to raise your family.

  • HIV/AIDS has no boundaries.

  • Poor countries are being forced to deal with an unprecedented health crisis without the means to tackle it . Governments can only show how seriously they are taking this crisis by taking immediate action to provide four million extra health workers and to grant those in need access to affordable medicines.

  • Feminism is a word that I identify with. The term has become synonymous with vitriolic man-hating but it needs to come back to a place where both men and women can embrace it. It is particularly important for women in developing countries.

  • I enjoy multi-tasking, so I want to do a lot of different things. I want to keep all the plates spinning.

  • There are two kinds of artists left: those who endorse Pepsi and those who simply won't.

  • I think music is the most phenomenal platform for intellectual thought.

  • You wouldn't find a Joni Mitchell on 'X Factor;' that's not the place. 'X Factor' is a specific thing for people that want to go through that process - it's a factory, you know, and it's owned and stitched-up by puppet masters.

  • This is the book I never read-These are the words I never said-This is the path I'll never tread-These are the dreams I'll dream instead

  • These are the tears-The tears we shed-This is the fear-This is the dread-These are the contents of my head

  • I see myself as a traveller.

  • If someone says something unpleasant, I can't say it doesn't smart a bit. It always does. Someone can take a really nasty swipe if they want because it kind of feels powerful for a person to write in a paper and get that thing out there.

  • I have always felt a little homeless. It's a strange thing.

  • There's a lot of women's organisations, but they're all working separately. If you get people together, as a collaborative voice, it's strong.

  • Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death.

  • I think Scotland could take a stand in a wonderful way, ecologically and morally and ethically.

  • You become really ugly when you become very superficial and self-obsessed.

  • Fame for fame's sake is toxic - some people want that, with no boundaries. It's unhealthy.

  • Pop stars are so busy having a career that they don't really have a lot of time for activism.

  • A lot of music you might listen to is pretty vapid, it doesn't always deal with our deeper issues. These are the things I'm interested in now, particularly at my age.

  • I am fascinated by history and particularly the Victorian era.

  • I'm just an ordinary person.

  • Women's issues have always been a part of my life. My goal is to bring the word 'feminism' back into the zeitgeist and reframe it.

  • I have different hats; I'm a mother, I'm a woman, I'm a human being, I'm an artist and hopefully I'm an advocate. All of those plates are things I spin all the time.

  • Our ancestors are totally essential to our every waking moment, although most of us don't even have the faintest idea about their lives, their trials, their hardships or challenges.

  • I don't have clear-cut positions. I get baffled by things. I have viewpoints. Sometimes they change.

  • When you go to Africa, and you see children, they're usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they'd love to go to school.

  • In a sense, the music business and I haven't always been the best of bedfellows. Artists often have to fight their corner. Your music goes through these filters of record labels and media, and you're hoping you'll find someone who'll help you get your work into the world.

  • Having children, they're not your property. They need to figure out their own views. I think my daughters have a pretty healthy self-awareness, but I can't speak on their behalf.

  • My issue with the state of women became incredibly stimulated when I was visiting developing countries and it became obvious that women bore the brunt of so many things in society.

  • Making a Christmas album is looked upon by some people as the thing you do when you are heading towards retirement.

  • I don't think feminism is about the exclusion of men but their inclusion... we must face and address those issues, especially to include younger men and boys.

  • The word feminism needs to be taken back. It needs to be reclaimed in a way that is inclusive of men.

  • I watch 'Mad Men,' I knit scarves, I cook and am very, very normal. Honestly.

  • It's not fair to compare one artist to another because they all come with their own sort of elements to the picnic, you know.

  • I'm not really keen on comebacks. Eurythmics was an incredible thing. When I look back on that work, I feel very satisfied with it.

  • I am a communicator; that seems to be my natural place. And I'll always be passionate about the world, because it's so bonkers.

  • Over the years, I was never really driven to become a solo artist, but I was curious to find out who I was as an individual creative person. It's taken some time, but now I feel I've truly paid my dues. I guess I'm at a point now where I'm more comfortable in my own skin.

  • Those in the developing world have so few rights - we take a lot for granted in the developed world.

  • One wouldn't want to have the same dilemmas at 50 as one had at 15. And indeed I don't. I have a very different take on life.

  • I was brought up in a tenement house in a working district. We didn't even have a bathroom! We had a gaslight in the hallway and a black-and-white TV.

  • Actually, I'm quite a domesticated person. I love the little things of home.

  • I think life on the road really suits very egotistical men. It's set up for kings.

  • I've never been a social person. When I grew up, the other girls would all be combing their hair and exchanging lipstick, and I just couldn't do that group thing.

  • The world is a heartbreaking place, without any question.

  • The dynamic between two individuals starts off with everything warm and nice and fabulous and good. Working and living together can serve you quite well, but when it starts to go wrong - oh, boy!

  • You have to face things, have faith in what you do and go for it. Think, 'What's the worst that could happen?'

  • If I hadn't been a singer, I might have been a photographer or an artist. But it's singing I love. I sing all the time, and I feel really good that I've expressed myself.

  • We're not interested to know the real heroes. We're really more interested in the villains, actually, and they seem to thrive, and it continues to be business as usual.

  • The very fact that the planet is probably unsustainable with all that we've done to it and are doing to it, it's an appalling piece of evidence. It shows our complacency, our lack of passion or inclination to be authentic and really understand our true values. It's consistently depressing, but nevertheless, we carry on.

  • The momentum of time is always going forward. You cannot repeat what has been done before. You can't go back.

  • I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.

  • Imagine living in abject poverty and not knowing anything other than that for generations. Or alternatively, imagine being born into a really wealthy family, but there was no real love. Everyone's living these extraordinary, interesting lives whether they know it or not.

  • This is the book I never read ~ These are the words I never said ~ This is the path I'll never tread ~ These are the dreams I'll dream instead

  • I don't take myself as seriously as some people think, and I'd hate anyone to think I was preaching. That's the last thing I want.

  • One realizes after a long time that, actually, we are contradictory, all of us.

  • I guess what I'm passionate about is, I see so many things that I find that there's no real solution to, and you're only here for such a brief moment in time, even if you live to be a hundred years old. Yet, what happens within that time frame? So many things happen.

  • Fashion is temporary; fashion is a race. What it's doing is giving you something that you say, "This is the outer wrapping of me." Style is something else. It's not quantifiable. Fashion is about selling. Fashion is about what's in. Style is independent of that; style is individual.

  • I think the whole experience of being a human being on the planet is such a mystery, to be honest. Trying to figure out one's purpose and [asking] "What is it all about?"

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