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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.

-Annie Lennox

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We All Fight Over

Annie Lennox

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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.

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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.

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.

Developing Countries

Fundamentally, We Are All In The Same Place: We're Born, We Live, And We're Going To Die. In Between, We'll Have Joy And We'll Have Sadness.

We're All Born, And If You're Going To Live To Be Elderly, You'll Have Gone Through A Life Journey Different Than Anyone Else's. It's Unique To You, But You'll Have Some Common Themes.

Music Is A Great Vehicle For Communications, And I Have A Certain Platform. I Have An Opportunity And I Have To Take It.

There Are So Many Things That We Could Do To Change The World In So Many Aspects. There Are People Working In Nonprofit Organizations, Tackling The Issues That We So Desperately Need To Face, While Governments Fail So Appallingly.

I Want To Branch Out. I Want To Write. I Write Poetry. I Want To See My Children Grow Up Well.

There Needs To Be A Shift In Consciousness; There Needs To Be An Absolute Wake-up Call Before Society Can Actually Make The Kind Of Incredibly Significant Changes That Need To Happen.

Significant Change

You Have To Be Quite Grounded, And I Don't Know What That Is. Sometimes, That Means Being Vulnerable.

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.

Churches, Depending On Their Policy, Can Do Fantastic Work With People In The Community.

I Find Beauty In A Very Independent State. It Lives Quietly. It's There To Be Discovered.

I'm Appalled That 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. It Isn't About Us And Them.

The Worst Thing Someone Gets Is Isolated. Isolation Is The Darkest Part Of Any Condition.

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.

I Want To Be True To Who I Am.

I Love To Make Music And Stay Grounded.

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.

Women Empowering Other Women.they Get The Psycho-social Support. They Become Part Of A Community.

I Am Fascinated By History And Particularly The Victorian Era.

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.

Black And White

Every Artist Has To Make Their Own Statements And They Have To Live With Them.

I Think Life On The Road Really Suits Very Egotistical Men. It's Set Up For Kings.

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.

If One Woman Is Suffering, Then We Are All Suffering, And We Need To Put A Voice To That.

I Like Where I Live Here, In London.

The Music Industry Has Always Been A Beast, Which Would Eat You Up And Spit You Out.

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.

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.

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.

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.

One Realizes After A Long Time That, Actually, We Are Contradictory, All Of Us.

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.

I Only Want To Make Music Because I Have A Passion For It.

I Wanted To Create Something That Was Quite Edgy And Belonged To Me. It Wasn't About My Sexual Orientation, Because I'm Heterosexual. It Was Saying That Appearance Is Just Temporary, And I Want To Be As Strong As A Man.

People Ask Me So Many Questions.

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.

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.

I've Had My Share Of Dark Days Of The Soul. I Try Not To Focus On It Too Much So It Doesn't Get To Me.

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.

You Have To Face Things, Have Faith In What You Do And Go For It. Think, 'what's The Worst That Could Happen?'

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.

We All Come From Women, And There's Something Extraordinary About The Mothers Who Raised Us.

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 Wasn't Trying To Be A Role Model For Anybody. I Don't Think That You Can.

I Have A Lot To Be Grateful For.

The Music Scene In The '70s Was Like The United Kingdom In The '70s - We Had A Lot Of Unemployment, We Had Inflation, We Had A Lot Of Strikes Going On, On A National Scale, And A Lot Of Discontent. That Was Reflected In The Music.

Although I Have Lived In London, I Have Never Really Considered London My Home Because It Was Always Going To Be A Stopping-off Point For Me, And It Has Been Too.

Pop Stars Are So Busy Having A Career That They Don't Really Have A Lot Of Time For Activism.

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 Didn't Want To Be Perceived As A Girly Girl On Stage.

I Understand What It Is For A Woman To Want To Protect Their Children And Give Them The Best They Can.

It Was Very Easy For Me To Dedicate Myself To The Care Of Mothers, Help Them Have Healthy Babies, Help Them Be Healthy, Help Them In A Place Where They Don't Have Opportunities. Success Breeds The Excitement To Continue Going. It's Harder To Get Out Of Bed When You've Failed.

I Love To Be Individual, To Step Beyond Gender.

I'm Not Living My Life Under The Spotlight For Anybody.

I Played With The Image, Because I Think Image Is Temporary. It's A Projection. It's Illusory.

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.

Each Individual Is As Individual As Their Fingerprints, And I Think That's Extraordinary.

I Enjoy Multi-tasking, So I Want To Do A Lot Of Different Things. I Want To Keep All The Plates Spinning.

You Become Really Ugly When You Become Very Superficial And Self-obsessed.

I'm Very Intrigued That In This Culture Of Reality Television And Celebrity - Which Is An Enormous Industry And Generates Billions And Billions Of Dollars - We're So Resourceful.

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?

To Try To Help People Have Babies In A Healthy Way And To Celebrate The Process Of Delivering A Child Which Will Be Healthy Is, I Think, Almost The Best Part Of Healthcare.

Medicine Comes With Hope: The Hope Of Having A Healthy Child, The Hope Of Being Able To Raise Your Family.

To Be Human Is To Have A Whole Spectrum Of These Experiences That Arise Within Us.

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 Watch 'mad Men,' I Knit Scarves, I Cook And Am Very, Very Normal. Honestly.

If You Do Nothing, If A Mother Doesn't Come For Care, If She Breastfeeds Her Baby, The Chances Of The Baby Getting Hiv Are About 40%. So It's About The Difference Between 40% And Zero. This Is Almost Totally Preventable. But It Requires Mothers Coming For Care And Getting The Medicines They Need, And Getting The Education And Support They Need.

To Be Labeled As A Strong Woman When You Feel Vulnerable Is A Strange Place To Be, Because Then You're, Like, "oh, I Have To Be Strong Now. But I Don't Feel Strong. I Feel Alienated. I Feel Isolated. I Feel That Things Are Very Surreal, And They're Not Authentic, And This Is All Just Very Overwhelming."

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.

Meaning Of Life

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.

If You Come Face To Face With Some Really Challenging Situations And Tragic Circumstances - You Are Going In There With A Purpose. You Are Not Going In There As A Tourist.

At Times, I've Been So Absolutely Terrified Of What I Was About To Do, Whether It Was Public Speaking Or Performance. Whatever It Was, Sometimes It Had Me Really, Really Shaking In My Shoes, And I Decided That I Was Going To Do It No Matter What. And, Of Course, The Critic Is There, And Afterwards, There's This, "was It Good Enough? Was It Really All I Wanted To Say?"

Fame For Fame's Sake Is Toxic - Some People Want That, With No Boundaries. It's Unhealthy.

As You Get Older, There Will Be A New Challenge Arising. What You Thought You'd Accomplished Once, Maybe The Goal Post Has Shifted And It's Not What You're Pursuing Anymore, Because You're Not Interested In That Anymore, You Know?

I Didn't Want To Be A Barbie Doll. I Didn't Want To Be A Passive Entertainer. It Wasn't How I Wanted To Present Myself.

I Live In A World Of Possibility And Opportunity. You Look For The Light. There's Darkness Everywhere But You Look For That Spot Of Light And You Work Your Way Towards It, And You Do What It Takes To Get There.

Let Me Be The Only One To Keep You From The Cold Now The Floor Of Hell Is Laid, The Stars Are Bright As Gold They Light For You, They Shine For You They Burn For All To See Come Into These Arms Again And Set Your Spirit Free

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 Wouldn't Have Known When I Was A Teenager That When I Was Coming Up To Being A Sixty-year-old Woman That I'd Be Making Music, I'd Be Recording Music, Talking About Music, And Incorporating My Views On The World Into The Music-making. So It's A Very Rarefied Place To Be, And I'm Very Grateful For That.

Something That's Of Common Interest To Every Man, Woman And Child On The Planet Must Surely Be The Notion Of 'peace'. Without 'peace' We Cannot Survive. Valentine's Day Is On The 14 February. Christmas Day Is On The 25 December. Peace Day Has Been Established By The United Nations On The 21 September, And The Whole World Is Invited To Participate.

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.

It's A Very Telling Thing When You Have Children. You Have To Be There For Them, You've Got To Set An Example, When You're Not Sure What Your Example Is, And Anyway The World Is Changing So Fast You Don't Know What Is Appropriate Anymore.

There Are Two Kinds Of Artists Left: Those Who Endorse Pepsi And Those Who Simply Won't.

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.

Making A Christmas Album Is Looked Upon By Some People As The Thing You Do When You Are Heading Towards Retirement.

Those In The Developing World Have So Few Rights - We Take A Lot For Granted In The Developed World.

Green Is A Label For A Certain Attitude To Life, A Certain Kind Of Respect That One Might Have For The Very Source Of Things That We Take For Granted.

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 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.

Nelson Mandela Is Awe Inspiring - A Person Who Really Sacrificed For What He Believed In. I Feel Truly Humbled By Him.

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'm Not A Christian, But I Think The Christian Message Is A Good One.

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.

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.

Such Is The Scale And Depth Of Poverty In Many Parts Of The World That It Won't Be Ended Overnight. That Is Why If, Like Me, You Want To See An End To Poverty, You Need To Be In It For The Long Haul.

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!

When You're That Successful, Things Have A Momentum, And At A Certain Point You Can't Really Tell Whether You Have Created The Momentum Or It's Creating You.

Bulnerable Without Strength Is Vulnerable, And Being Vulnerable Means You Can Be Victimized.

I've Never Experienced Chronic Poverty, But I Know What It's Like To Live On £3 A Week.

I Was Never Much Of A One To Win Prizes... And Certainly Never Placed Too Much Value On Their Acquisition.

We Need Money To Scale Up The Services That Bring Medicine To Mothers. The United States Government's Doing That. There's A Global Fund That's Providing Money. Mothers2mothers Provides For Mothers Who Come In Who Don't Have Education, Who Don't Have Support. Mothers2mothers Employs Mothers With Hiv, Mothers Who Were Patients Recently In The Very Same Facilities. We Take Those Mothers Who Were Patients Who've Had Their Babies, We Bring Them Back, We Train Them, We Pay Them, To Be Health Care Professionals.

I Don't Feel There Are Enough Women Artists Out There Who Are Saying Anything Of Tremendous Relevance.

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.

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.

The Word Feminism Needs To Be Taken Back. It Needs To Be Reclaimed In A Way That Is Inclusive Of Men.

I Don't Have Any Interest To Go To Israel. I Don't Think I'd Ever Have A Cause To Go.

I Think Scotland Could Take A Stand In A Wonderful Way, Ecologically And Morally And Ethically.

It's Harder To Get Out Of Bed When You've Failed.

I Was Born In 1954. My Parents Were Brought Up In The War Years, And Life Was Hard.

I'm Not A Saint. I'm Not An Angel. I'm A Human Being.

Ask Yourself: Have You Been Kind Today? Make Kindness Your Daily Modus Operandi And Change Your World.

If People Like Your Music, You Can't Guarantee They're Going To Love You.

In A Way, It's All Down To Perception, Isn't It? And Everyone Has Their Own Take On Everything.

When I Was Younger I Wish I'd Known That What Often Seemed To Be The 'end Of The World' Often Turned Out To Be A Positive And Transformative Experience!

I Want People To Understand Me As A Person With Views, Not Just Performing Songs.

There Must Be An Angel, Playing With My Heart. And When I Think That I'm Alone, It Seems There's More Of Us At Home...

I Wouldn't Say That I've Mellowed. I'm Less Mellow, Perhaps.

Everything Is Illusory. You Cannot Label Something And Feel That That Is The Beginning, Middle, And End Of It.

Beginning Middle And End

You Have A Bigger View, Of Something Bigger Than You, And You Have To View That And Take That In Mind. At Times You Feel Like Despair Rises Up Over Hope, Then Other Times You Feel Hopeful Again.

Success Breeds The Excitement To Continue Going.

I Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants That Have Gone Before Me, In Terms Of Affording People Like Myself, Women, The Access To Democracy, The Vote, Medical Treatment, Education, Everything That I've Been Given. It's All Been Earned.

I Get Very Frustrated When I Hear Women Saying, "oh, Feminism Is Passé," Because I Think Feminism Means Empowerment. Men Can Be Feminists, Too! Many Men Are Feminists. We Need Feminism. It's Not Against Men; It's About The Empowerment Of Women. It's The Respect Of Women - Giving Women Equal Rights, The Same Opportunities.

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 An Only Child, You Know, Originally. I'm Not A Child Anymore, But I Certainly Tend To Spend A Lot Of Time On My Own.

Fear Paralyses You - Fear Of Flying, Fear Of The Future, Fear Of Leaving A Rubbish Marriage, Fear Of Public Speaking, Or Whatever It Is.

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.

Men Need To Understand, And Women Too, What Feminism Is Really About.

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 Think People In Great Britain Are A Bit Jaded Sometimes.

I Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants That Have Gone Before Me, In Terms Of Affording People Like Myself, Women, The Access To Democracy, The Vote, Medical Treatment, Education, Everything That I've Been Given. It's All Been Earned. Therefore I Feel It's Incumbent On Me Personally To Just Contribute Something, To Add To A Collective Voice That Needs To Be Here Right Now, To Build It Up To A Tipping Point, To Make The World Aware That Women's Rights Still Have To Be Addressed And That The Word 'feminism' Has Been Devalued And Needs To Be Reclaimed.

If You Come Face To Face With Some Really Challenging Situations And Tragic Circumstances - You Are Going In There With A Purpose. You Are Not Going In There As A Tourist. You're Not Going There Just To Merely Observe. You Have A Purpose, And Your Purpose Is To Tell That Story, To Share That Story For The Bigger Benefit Of Millions Of Other People. Your Purpose Is To Create That Bridge So You Can Give That Story The Dignity And The Focus That It Deserves, And You Can Become A Part Of The Amplification That Needs To Be There.

I Think It Takes A Lot To Put Oneself In A Place Where, You Know, That Thing About "feel The Fear And Do It Anyway." You Wonder What The Driving Force Is That Makes You Want To Do That And Not Just Stay In A Safer Place.

I Also Started Writing Songs Because I Had This Burning Activity In My Heart And Had To Express Myself.

In Memory, You Can Access Something From The Past, Anything That You've Experienced That You Remember - It's There. Now, You Might Have A Memento Of It In A Photograph Or In A Film Or A Building Or Some Clothes That You Wore. There Might Be Something That Connects You To This Memory. But All Of Us Are Just All Caught In This Time, Whatever That Is.

Motherhood Was The Great Equaliser For Me; I Started To Identify With Everybody.

I Have Always Felt A Little Homeless. It's A Strange Thing.

Twerking Is Not Feminism. Thats What I’m Referring To. It’s Not — It’s Not Liberating, It’s Not Empowering. It’s A Sexual Thing That You’re Doing On A Stage; It Doesn’t Empower You. That’s My Feeling About It.

I Think My Daughters Have A Pretty Healthy Self-awareness But I Can't Speak On Their Behalf.

Money Is A Good Thing And It's Obviously Useful, But To Work Only For Money Or Fame Would Never Interest Me.

We Are Not Consistent. We Have Both These Dark Sides And Some Light As Well.

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 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?

It's Hard To Tell How Far Women's Individuality Has Come In The Past Twenty Years.

There's Good Stuff And Bad Stuff, But You Continue On. I'm Not Prescriptive - I Cannot Tell Anyone Else What To Do With Their Lives, And I'm A Deeply Flawed Individual - But This Is It. We're All Just Living It And... Bless Us All.

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 Think Music Is The Most Phenomenal Platform For Intellectual Thought.

Most Women Are Dissatisfied With Their Appearance - It's The Stuff That Fuels The Beauty And Fashion Industries.

I'm Not A Risk Taker Physically. I Just Have No Interest In Swinging Myself Off A Mountaintop Or Parachute Gliding Or Skiing Down A Totally Vertical Drop. These Things Don't Interest Me In The Slightest, But I Get So Caught Up In The Color Or The Texture Of The Sounds Of Something. That's So Funny To Me.

I Think That You Can Only Be True To Yourself. Nobody Can Live Up To Other People's Expectations. You Will Always Let Them Down. There Will Always Be Something They Won't Like About You.

We Would Like To See The Virtual Elimination Of The Transmission Of [hiv] From Mother To Child By 2015. ... We Believe It Can Be Achieved With Political Will.

When You Get To Be Nearly 60, You Do Take Stock. You Don't Know What's Around The Corner.

Around The Corner

Hiv/aids Has No Boundaries.

I'm Passionate About Everything, Actually. I'm Passionate About Life.

Desire, Despair, Desire. So Many Monsters.

When Things Are Starting To Work, You Get Up At Five In The Morning Thinking, What Are We Going To Do Today? You Stay Up Until One In The Morning Getting It Done, And Then You Start The Next Day With The Same Energy, Because It's Working!

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. '

Anita Roddick Was Amazing. Her Presence In A Room Was Full Of Light, And Everything She Worked To Achieve Still Resonates Now.

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 Had A Number Of Different Labels. A Lot Of People Assumed I Was Gay Because I Was Wearing A Man's Suit, And One Had To Learn That It's Ok, People Will Do That, And You Don't Always Have To Explain It One Hundred Percent, Because They're Never Going To Accept What Your Own Interpretation Is. It's All Illusory.

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.

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.

More Than Anything, I Think Everything About Appearance Is Illusory. People See You, And They Think They Understand What You're Projecting, But Actually, They Have Their Own Interpretation Of It, Or They Put A Label On You.

I Identify With Other Women Because Of My Gender, And I Identify With Other Women If They Are Mothers Because I'm A Mother, Too. It's Very Simple. It's Nothing Complicated, It's Not Rocket Science. It's About Empathy. It's About Understanding That What Happens With One Person Is Potentially What Happens To You, And Seeing Yourself In Someone Else's Shoes. Fundamentally, We Are All In The Same Place: We're Born, We Live, And We're Going To Die. In Between, We'll Have Joy And We'll Have Sadness.

I Have Always Been A Very Visual Person And A Keen Observer.

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.

I've Thought About What Is An Alternative Word To Feminism. There Isn't One. It's A Perfectly Good Word. And It Can't Be Changed.

You're Never Quite Sure Where The Song Is Going, Because You Might Not Find The Word To Rhyme With The End Of The Line. You Have To Find Associative Meaning To Get You There. So It's Rather Like Doing A Crossword Puzzle Backwards. A Kind Of Strange, Three-dimensional, Abstract Crossword Puzzle.

There Was A Time When I Looked To Other People For Recognition, Because I Didn't Have Enough Confidence To Trust My Own Judgment. Now I'm Not Looking For Reassurance, Because I Realize How Fickle People Are. My Own Strength Is The Best I Can Have.

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'm Not Particularly Attention-seeking.

Attention Seeking

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?"

The World Is A Heartbreaking Place, Without Any Question.

When Women Get Together As A Group, It Is Immensely Powerful.

Dying Is Easy, It's Living That Scares Me To Death.

In The States, The Hiv Transmission From Mother To Child Is Almost Completely Preventable - The Only Mothers Who Really Do Transmit It Are The Ones Who Don't Come In For Care. If A Mother In The United States Or In Europe Or In The Uk Comes To Care And Gets Her Medicines, She Will Have An Hiv Negative Baby. Most People Don't Know That.

The Poetic Side Of Me Is Scottish.

You Can Live With Almost Any Condition If You're Living Within A Community Of People Who Can Share A Common Understanding.

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.

There's Always Darkness Around, And If You Focus On The Darkness, You Don't Know Where To Go. But If You Direct Yourself At The Light - There It Is! It's Right There.

I'm A Female But I Have A Masculine Side And I'm Not Going To Negate That Part Of Myself.

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.

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.

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.

My First Understanding Of Hiv And Aids Was Like Everybody Else From My Generation. In The Mid-'80s, We Heard About This, And It Was Terrifying, Because We Knew Nothing About How To Respond To It Appropriately, And We Didn't Really Understand About How The Virus Is Passed. There Was A Lot Of Misconception About That.

I Chose A Career In Obstetrics And Gynecology Because There's Something About Honoring Women, Honoring The Birth Process. We All Come From Women, And There's Something Extraordinary About The Mothers Who Raised Us.

As A Creative Person, You Just Put Something Out Into The Consciousness Of The Society You Live In.

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.

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.

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

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.

Whatever You Do, You Do Out Of A Passion.

I Will Go Out Of My Way To Avoid The Shopping Crowds And The Extreme Consumerism - I Hate All That.

You Know, I Would Say That Songwriting Is Something About The Expression Of The Heart, The Intellect And The Soul.

Humankind Seems To Have An Enormous Capacity For Savagery, For Brutality, For Lack Of Empathy, For Lack Of Compassion.

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.

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.

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.

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