Top 225 Quotes & Sayings by Annie Lennox - Page 3

Every artist has to make their own statements and they have to live with them.

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.

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

When you get to be nearly 60, you do take stock. You don't know what's around the corner.

Music is a great vehicle for communications, and I have a certain platform. I have an opportunity and I have to take it.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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 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.

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 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.

When women get together as a group, it is immensely powerful.

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

Each individual is as individual as their fingerprints, and I think that's extraordinary.

I want to be true to who I am.

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.

You can live with almost any condition if you're living within a community of people who can share a common understanding.

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."

The worst thing someone gets is isolated. Isolation is the darkest part of any condition.

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.

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

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.

We all come from women, and there's something extraordinary about the mothers who raised us.

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!

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?

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

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.

I played with the image, because I think image is temporary. It's a projection. It's illusory.

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

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 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.

In a way, it's all down to perception, isn't it? And everyone has their own take on everything.

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.

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

You have to be quite grounded, and I don't know what that is. Sometimes, that means being vulnerable.

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.

Just having medicine isn't equivalent to medical care. You need the health systems, you need to create the social framework so that people feel safe.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Success breeds the excitement to continue going.

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.

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!

To be human is to have a whole spectrum of these experiences that arise within us.

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.

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.

The poetic side of me is Scottish.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 find beauty in a very independent state. It lives quietly. It's there to be discovered.

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.

If one woman is suffering, then we are all suffering, and we need to put a voice to that.