Bjork quotes:

With a small town mentality, you make a decision very early on as to whether you are going to do everything by the book or just go your own way and not care.

Solar power, wind power, the way forward is to collaborate with nature - it's the only way we are going to get to the other end of the 21st century.

Most people in Iceland are blonde and blue-eyed. I was nicknamed 'China girl' in school 'cos they thought I looked Asian.

Feminists bore me to death. I follow my instinct and if that supports young girls in any way, great. But I'd rather they saw it more as a lesson about following their own instincts rather than imitating somebody.

I have written most of my melodies walking and I feel it is definitely one of the most helpful ways of sewing all of the different things in your life together and seeing the whole picture.

I went through an anti-Establishment phase and thought we should get everything for free.

Being a musician is very easy. My house is full of musical instruments. There's a lot of music, always.

I feel like the people from Iceland have a different relationship with their country than other places. Most Icelandic people are really proud to be from there, and we don't have embarrassments like World War II where we were cruel to other people.

It's incredible how nature sets females up to take care of people, and yet it is tricky for them to take care of themselves.

Singing is like a celebration of oxygen.

It's funny how the hippies and the punks tried to get rid of the conservatives, but they always seem to get the upper hand in the end.

In order to actually have a touchscreen in front of me and somehow still be connected to nature, I needed to be able to incorporate natural elements into the song structures. Because that's always been my song-writing accompaniment: nature.

The English eat all sorts of birds - pigeons, ducks, sparrows - but if you tell them you eat puffin, you might as well come from Mars.

But I'm not interested in politics. I lose interest the microsecond it ceases to be emotional, when something becomes a political movement. What I'm interested in is emotions.

I'm not interested in politics. I lose interest the microsecond it ceases to be emotional, when something becomes a political movement. What I'm interested in is emotions.

In '96, I was in a very specific place with my own music - I was only listening to beats. You would come to my house, and I would just play beats all day.

In Reykjavik, Iceland, where I was born, you are in the middle of nature surrounded by mountains and ocean. But you are still in a capital in Europe. So I have never understood why I have to choose between nature or urban.

There's something about the rhythm of walking, how, after about an hour and a half, the mind and body can't help getting in sync.

I do love one-upmanship sometimes, like when you see kids breakdancing and who can do the best tricks. It's common, it's in our nature as animals, like the birds of paradise who've got the best feathers and that sort of stuff. But it's fun when it's impulsive and it's about fun.

The English can be a very critical, unforgiving people, but criticism can be good. And this is a country that loves comedy.

I think religion is a mistake - I'm exhausted by its self-righteousness. I think atheists should start screaming for attention like religious folks do.

I'm a bit of a nerd, I wouldn't mind working in a shop selling records, or having a radio show where I could play obscure singles.

I'm not going to talk like I know about politics, because I'm a total amateur, but maybe I can be a spokesperson for people who aren't normally interested in politics.

Sometimes when I write lyrics there are images in them, usually on a quite simplistic level, like colors. But most often music comes first and then later I sit down with visual people and we chat about what we want to do. I don't look at myself as a visual artist. I make music.

I started an all-girl punk band when I was 14, and I was the drummer, not the singer.

While you're setting something up that's educational for yourself, you have an opportunity to teach others at the same time.

Nature has always been important to me. It has always been in my music.

Compared to America or Europe, God isn't a big part of our lives here. I don't know anyone here who goes to church when he's had a rough divorce or is going through depression. We go out into nature instead.

I guess I'm quite used to not being understood rather than being understood.

Sometimes, when I have a lot of ideas and I want to do a lot of things, or when I'm traveling, I lose energy and I can't do as many things as I want. So I have to plan days when I'm not doing anything. I find that a bit boring, but it's necessary.

The reason I do photographs is to help people understand my music, so it's very important that I am the same, emotionally, in the photographs as in the music. Most people's eyes are much better developed than their ears. If they see a certain emotion in the photograph, then they'll understand the music.

I've always appreciated working with people I have chemistry with, who are friends, and where you feel that the work is growing while you are getting to know each other better.

In 2008, I was more just thinking about using the touchscreen for writing the songs. From there I started thinking about how I visualised music.

Believe it or not, I'm a bit clumsy with technology. It's probably why I'm so excited about the touchscreen - even an idiot can use it!

It would be flattering to be thought of as someone who celebrated life.

People are always asking me about eskimos, but there are no eskimos in Iceland.

There's no map to human behaviour.

I get embarrassed listening to my last CDs. I've got a lot of work to do, let's put it that way.

Nature is our chapel.

Now that rock is turning 50, it's become classical in itself. It's interesting to see that development.

I find it so amazing when people tell me that electronic music has no soul. You can't blame the computer. If there's no soul in the music, it's because nobody put it there.

Football is a fertility festival. Eleven sperm trying to get into the egg. I feel sorry for the goalkeeper.

I love being a very personal singer-songwriter, but I also like being a scientist or explorer.

Formats are just illusions, and it's about the relationship between the person that makes music and the person that listens to music. Every time there's a new format, the iron is hot, and you can mold it.

I am a grateful... grapefruit.

I am grateful... grapefruit.

Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I get so much grounding from Iceland because I know it's always going to be there. I have a very happy, healthy relationship with the country, so it's really easy to go everywhere because I always have Iceland to go back to. It's sort of a contradiction, but that's how it works somehow.

Iceland sets a world-record. The United Nations asked people from all over the world a series of questions. Iceland stuck out on one thing. When we were asked what do we believe, 90% said, 'ourselves'. I think I'm in that group. If I get into trouble, there's no God or Allah to sort me out. I have to do it myself.

I've been traveling in Guatemala in the rainforest, and here all these houses are made of sticks. It seems so easy to make one.

I think every year brings unknowns that you have to deal with and handle, confront and embrace.

Seventy per cent humidity is ideal for vocal cords.

When I was a teenager in Iceland people would throw rocks and shout abuse at me because they thought I was weird. I never got that in London no matter what I wore.

I love England. It's no coincidence it's the first place I moved to for a more cosmopolitan life, which is the only thing Iceland lacks.

I love hiking in Iceland most, there are lots of brilliant paths.

How could I be so immature to think you could replace the missing elements in me. How extremely lazy of me.

I'm a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl . . . leave me now return tonight tide will show you the way if you forget my name you will go astray like a killer whale trapped in a bay

National Geographic contacted me about getting on their label, and I was like, 'Wow, I want to be label mates with the sharks and lemurs!'

Usually when you see females in movies, they feel like they have these metallic structures around them, they are caged in by male energy.

There's more to Life than this

In school, I guess I was a difficult, know-it-all type of student... I was always complaining that music education was too academic.

I'd done three solo albums in a row, and that's quite narcissistic.

For a person as obsessed with music as I am, I always hear a song in the back of my head, all the time, and that usually is my own tune. I've done that all my life.

Usually when you see females in movies, they feel like they have these metallic structures around them, they are caged by male energy.

I sometimes fall into the trap of doing what I think I should be doing rather than what I want to be doing.

I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one, it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men.

We didn't really have television when I was a kid. Around 30, I discovered films and started systematically catching up. I collect interesting documentaries and films, and watch a few nights a week.

The good thing about Pro Tools is you can actually hear what you're working on, so it doesn't just become this intellectual idea. But Pro Tools can be dangerous, too. It can make things sterile.

When I met Apple, I made it very clear that I am an old punk and I have never done commercials or been sponsored. And I wasn't after their money.

I get obsessed by little nerdy things in my corner that no one else is interested in.

I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl.

Now that rock is turning 50, it's become classical itself. It's interesting to see that development.

As a singer-songwriter, what I do is write about how the human feels.

Part of me is probably more conservative than people realise. I like my old string quartets, I don't like music that's trippy for trippy's sake.

People that complete other people's vision are understated.

Since I was a kid, I always wanted to figure out how to make a bass line that was a pendulum - like, gravity would control it, and then you could make it play different notes.

There are certain emotions in your body that not even your best friend can sympathize with, but you will find the right film or the right book, and it will understand you.

Most Icelandic people are really proud to be from there, and we don't have embarrassments like World War II where we were cruel to other people. We don't even have an army. So it's sort of like an all-around good, innocent place.

My first album didn't come out until I was 27, which in pop years is late, you know. But when it came time to arrange it, I became a kid in a toy shop. I had a harp and a saxophone quartet and a symphony orchestra. I went berserk for a time.

When I was a punk teenager, I rebelled because lots of people in Iceland think that foreigners are evil and that if you don't wear woolen hats and eat sheep, you're betraying your heritage.

In elections in Iceland, I have always been an abstainer. It seems like politics is such a small bundle of self-important people, who don't have much to do with things I'm interested in.

There is such a big chunk of me that is David Attenborough. I think he is my biggest inspiration.

I feel the 21st century is another new age. Not only can we collaborate again with nature, but we have to. It's an emergency.

I get highs, to be totally honest, in second-hand shops. My hunting instinct, I expect, really kicks in.

Come on, I'm from Iceland; I don't do hip-hop.

Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I get so much grounding from Iceland because I know it's always going to be there. I have a very happy, healthy relationship with the country, so it's really easy to go everywhere because I always have Iceland to go back to.

Living in a capital in Europe but still surrounded by mountains and ocean, my relationship to music was strongest walking to school and back. I would sing to myself and very quickly started mapping out my melodies to landscapes - at the time I just thought it was very matter of fact, a common thing to do.

I bought a laptop in 1999, and it was quite liberating, because I could make a lot of my own decisions.

I do believe sometimes discipline is very important. I'm not just lying around like a lazy cow all the time.

The funeral business is so manipulative emotionally. I would want to be thrown into the sea or burned - something that's not a big hassle.

A lot of the time I get obsessed by little nerdy things in my corner that no one else is interested in. I have that nerd factor in my character.

Nature hasn't gone anywhere. It is all around us, all the planets, galaxies and so on. We are nothing in comparison.

What probably confuses people is they know a lot about me, but it quite pleases me that there's more they don't know.

With my projects, I really like the extreme high-tech stuff, but I also like the other end, the acoustic things. So it seems like those meet on an iPad, where you make shapes but the sounds coming out of it are really acoustic.

I went to music school, and I guess I was a difficult, know-it-all type of student.

I would like to teach music. It's weird the way they teach music in schools like Julliard these days.

I mostly write on my own, walking, outside.

If you want to make something happen that hasn't happened before , you've got to allow yourself to make a lot of mistakes.

I have to re-create the universe every morning when I wake up, and kill it in the evening.

I am one of the most idiosyncratic people around.

If you wake up / And the day feels broken / Just lean into the crack

It takes a long time to fully become who you are.

It's invisible, what women do. It's not rewarded as much.

Everything that a guy says once, you have to say five times.

I miss you, but I haven't met you yet!

I don't like records that are the same from beginning to end, that are too styled and slick. Everything is so designed and airbrushed and Botoxed, it makes us think, 'Oh, everybody's perfect except me. Everything's smooth except me.' But nothing is smooth.

People are always going to need physicality; they're going to want to meet other people even more. I've got faith in the physical angle. People have their needs. They won't forget about them.

When I was 20, political music was the uncoolest thing on earth. But when Bush got elected, that was the first time I started actually reading the news.

If travel is searching and home what's been found, I'm not stopping. I'm going hunting.

Today has never happened and it doesn't frighten me.

I was very aware when I went to the Academy Awards that it would probably be my first and last time. So I thought my input should really be about fertility, and I thought I'd bring some eggs.

If I had a philosophy, it's that I support the beautiful side of anarchy.

I find it very difficult to draw a line between what's sex and what isn't. It can be very, very sexy to drive a car, and completely unsexy to flirt with someone at a bar.

Declare independence, don't let them do that to you!

I'm self-sufficient. I spend a lot of time on my own and I shut off quite easily. When I communicate, I communicate 900 per cent, then I shut off, which scares people sometimes.

Our times seem to be so much about redefining where we are physical and where we're not. For me, it is really exciting to take the cutting edge technology and take it as far as it can get virtually, use it to describe/control the musicology or the behavior of raw natural elements, and then plug it with a sound source which is the most acoustic one there is - like gamelan and pipe organ. So you get the extremes: very virtual and very physical. In that way you shift the physicality.

All we had ever heard about record company people is that they were vampires and criminals...and they killed Elvis Presley.