Annie Lennox Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul.

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 was never much of a one to win prizes... and certainly never placed too much value on their acquisition.

Desire, despair, desire. So many monsters.

I have a lot to be grateful for.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

There's so much stigma around HIV/AIDS. It's a challenging issue, and the people that already have been tested and know their status find it very, very hard to disclose their status, to live with that virus, and to even seek out the kind of information they need. This experience of going to South Africa a decade ago really woke me up to the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, how it was affecting women and their children. I haven't been able to walk away from it.

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.

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.

We are not consistent. We have both these dark sides and some light as well.

The world is a heartbreaking place, without any question.

Everything is illusory. You cannot label something and feel that that is the beginning, middle, and end of it.

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'm not intensely private - I talk a great deal about my life and my work - I just don't play the game to excess.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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 think that the thing is, all those years of creating music or trying to express something of a dark shadow, an existential angst that I have felt most of my life and still feel today, to not be overwhelmed by it. Music, in a way, is a great vehicle, a means by which one can express all these somewhat contradictory feelings.

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

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.

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'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.

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.

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

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.

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