Shirley Manson Quotes

I get female groupies, but I don't get male groupies. I have women who offer to sleep with me all the time. But not men. They're all talk and nay action -- as we'd say in Scotland. If I go anywhere near most of our male following, they are freaked. Absolutely freaked. I think my height has got a lot to do with it. I'm really tall. I'm five-eight, and with heels, I'm six foot, so people are like. 'Whoa, Amazon!' People are a wee taken aback by that 'cause I think people expect me to be small.

That's a difficult question, because to consider yourself a rebel is sort of ridiculous.

People don't associate red hair, pale skin, and freckles with beauty.

I don't find any kind of tension very productive, I find it destructive, actually.

At the end of the day, though, the band members have to be strong. It's down to the individuals in the unit. Listen to me, I'm talking like I'm in the army and this is my squadron.

You don't really hear a female perspective on the radio, because so many of the songs are being written by men.

I've got no timetable. I'm sort of sick of timetables, to be honest.

Obviously, from the experience you get from making videos, you understand where the camera is and how some of the actual technicalities work and so on and so forth.

It's everywhere, constant criticism of women's appearance in magazines and online. It's not easy to navigate.

I had taken some of my solo music into the record label. They didn't really care for the direction I was moving in and I found it really disheartening. They wanted a pop hit, which I understand in terms of making money. I get that. But what they were going to ask of me was something I wasn't prepared to deliver and I felt kind of trapped. I just stopped writing. I just stopped. It was stifling.

A lot of celebrities just want money, fame, power, fancy cars, houses all over the world and have people BOW DOWN to them. To me, that's frightful behaviour.

I just want to live my life a little freely and not adhere to any schedule - just make music and have fun.

The truth is, I've always been wracked with self-loathing and terrible, paralysing depression.

Mozart was a punk, which people seem to forget. He was a naughty, naughty boy.

I couldn't feel good about myself hanging out in Armani clothes when my girlfriend can't even pay her heating bill. I'd feel foul and I'd be embarrassed.

Somehow or another, my mother taught me to push through my fear, always. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

We're living in a time when people are struggling to appear perfect.

Pop music seems to be the way radio programming has chosen to support female artists. They have chosen not to support a more provocative voice from women, which I find disappointing.

A lot of my friends are artists or musicians or single parent families and I'm totally aware of how difficult it is for them to make ends meet.

I'm 45 years old. I used to be a club girl, but that's not my world anymore. That doesn't mean I can't make music that excites. I think it's inspiring to see an artist you grew up with take another crack.

I have a temper on me that could hold back tides.

I mean, I tend to do my own thing, and that usually crosses purposes with everyone around me.

What makes a woman stylish is what she has to say and how she chooses to live her life.

Possibly because I grew up not feeling very confident about my own physical appearance, I developed internal devices so that I could integrate into society.

Here's the tragedy of the modern record business: It's radio. If you're not on radio, nobody really is going to hear you or see you or care about you.

I feel privileged, to be honest.

I am not a sexy woman, I'm not beautiful, I'm not a sex kitten, I don't flirt with people, yet I've been tagged more of sex symbol than women who truly are and I that's solely because I don't reveal too much: people are curious.

I wouldn't say that cutting was pleasurable, but there is a sense of euphoria that follows cutting yourself. The quick pinch of pain and the sight of blood snaps you back to the surface and you start to appreciate being alive.

When somebody asks me a question, I try to be as straightforward about it as possible. I try not to overthink what I'm going to say in an interview.

One day I realized that it didn't matter whether people loved me or not.

Humans all want to beat the clock but nobody ever does.

If you have any opinions at all or if you're even remotely verbal then they're going to call you fiery.

It's definitely an intrinsic part of my makeup that makes me want to see black when everyone else is seeing white.

My solo album is dead and buried. We had the funeral. It was sad and I cried a lot but it made such a beautiful corpse that we had an open casket.

I'm fairly in control and I don't like to flirt particularly. I mean, obviously if I meet someone who I think is hot, of course I'll want to flirt with him, But in general I don't use it in day-to-day life.

I've always been an outsider. I am an outsider in Garbage. I'm the odd one out by default.

You know, it doesn’t matter how beautiful you are, if you don’t have anything interesting to say, then you’re still boring.

You have to watch all sides of your advancement, you have to make sure people's bodies and minds are healthy and their morale is cool before you can really go out and play great music.

I plan on doing as much in my life as I possibly can.

I feel the same way I did when I was in school. I'm having the same insecurities.

It is so hard for musicians when they step into acting is they're not coming in as a blank slate, they're coming in with a real set idea of who they are, where they're coming from, what their politics are, what their tastes are.

I have a lot of very close girlfriends and sisters - I'm from an all female family. My father often quips that even the cat was neutered!

It's unhealthy for people to never express any kind of negativity or doubt. To have balance, you need to address that side of your thoughts as well as the positive. Otherwise, you tend toward crazy.

I think young artists are always inspiring because they are coming at worlds from a different point of view.

I've got a lot of stamina and I enjoy people, so having lots of people around doesn't freak me out.

It's really difficult to navigate attention and stardom and celebrity status and still try to maintain yourself and hold onto your intelligence and integrity. It's really challenging.

Until we command the exact same salary as every male counterpart, I feel a political desire to stand by other women. If we don't stand together, that equality will never be fully realized, and that bothers me.

I was a redhead and a middle child; both can make you feel excluded. It's like fighting to be included, in the swim of things. After a while you start to develop a bit of a victim mentality, which isn't great for a happy life.