Top 95 Quotes & Sayings by Viv Albertine - Page 2

Writing is so much about rhythm. If you've got another rhythm in the room, it spoils the rhythm of the words.

I like writing because I can do it anywhere, and I don't need money to do it.

It's the people who transcend their backgrounds who are interesting to me. I have got a bit of inverted snobbery.

I'm not a gifted storyteller, so I write what I know and hope that honesty resonates with other people's experiences.

I like to rattle cages.

If I didn't live in London, I would live in Glasgow. I love the colour of the brick and the black ironwork. I think it's got such atmosphere and is extraordinary. I met great people there.

I always felt very free about experimenting with clothes. I was into clothes in a big way from a young age. Not expensive but fun and experimental.

I definitely thought the first book was going to be a one-off. I never thought I'd even write a book, not ever having aspired to be a writer. It's something that never occurred to me - a bit like it never occurred to me to play guitar when I was young. I just thought it was out of my league.

I never thought of myself as a strong person until I wrote my first book, and people started to say, 'You're a survivor. You're such a strong person.' It never ever occurred to me.

I get the same lurching thrill now when I'm about to sit down to an egg mayonnaise sandwich and a packet of plain crisps as I used to get when I fancied someone.

People think you're vulnerable when you tell the truth, but it's never hurt me.

I have a lot of empathy, and I think that's where mothering starts. You are there to empathise and facilitate.

I'm the angriest and most empathetic person you'll ever meet.

I adore quotes.

Punk inspired me.

One of my faults is a big mouth. I tend to say the wrong thing without meaning to.

Women are constantly taught to think about what other people are thinking, from those 'Jackie' magazine quizzes - 'What's he thinking?' - to being a grown adult.

I was brought up to be uncompromisingly bloody-minded by my mother. She equipped me, without knowing it, to be someone who is creative rather than an entertainer. Not many girls are brought up like that, to never rely on a man. To not be a housewife, not be a mother.

The truth is the only thing that will move society forwards.

I very much wanted a family and children. I came to it late in life.

Mum had pumped me so full of anger, I couldn't throw it off.

Directing taught me how to run a team and turn up on time - things you don't really learn when you're in a band.

I usually write at my kitchen table, nothing exotic. I don't need any equipment. I don't have to organise anyone else to rehearse, and when I do a reading, lots of women and girls come, whereas gigs are dominated by men. Not against men, but I want to communicate to women.

I copied John Lennon; I copied a bit of David Bowie. It's such a shame, and I'm so glad that now young girls have so many different role models in all different walks of life.

I do read a lot of autobiographies and biographies but from people who are not in my field - older women, older artists, Miles Davis.

Truth is splintered.

I still live very much by punk ethics, but in a more grown up way.

I think I am the Elizabeth Barrett of 2015. Not in terms of genius but in bed a lot.

I don't think it's healthy to have secrets; they hang over a family for generations.

Girls were nothing in the '70s.

We're all products of our own environment.

I'm not a nostalgic person.

I've had two great loves: my mother and my daughter.

I don't believe in an afterlife. You live on in the people you influence during your lifetime.

Fashion wasn't a label back in the '70s. We made our own clothes because we had no money.