Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death.
Annie Lennox
Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.
I'm not a saint. I'm not an angel. I'm a human being.
Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.
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.
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.
I have a lot to be grateful for.
You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul.
There are two kinds of artists left: those who endorse Pepsi and those who simply won't.
Music is an extraordinary vehicle for expressing emotion - very powerful emotions. That's what draws millions of people towards it. And, um, I found myself always going for these darker places and - people identify with that.
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.
When I look at the majority of my own songs they really came from my own sense of personal confusion or need to express some pain or beauty - they were coming from a universal and personal place.
I think music is the most phenomenal platform for intellectual thought.
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.
I see myself as a traveller.
I have always felt a little homeless. It's a strange thing.
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 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.
The word feminism needs to be taken back. It needs to be reclaimed in a way that is inclusive of men.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Whatever you do, you do out of a passion.
I have always been a very visual person and a keen observer.
Motherhood was the great equaliser for me; I started to identify with everybody.
Money is a good thing and it's obviously useful, but to work only for money or fame would never interest me.
I was born in 1954. My parents were brought up in the war years, and life was hard.
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.
Fear paralyses you - fear of flying, fear of the future, fear of leaving a rubbish marriage, fear of public speaking, or whatever it is.
As a creative person, you just put something out into the consciousness of the society you live in.
Anita Roddick was amazing. Her presence in a room was full of light, and everything she worked to achieve still resonates now.
Fame for fame's sake is toxic - some people want that, with no boundaries. It's unhealthy.
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.
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.
Actually, I'm quite a domesticated person. I love the little things of home.
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.
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?
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.
I think people in Great Britain are a bit jaded sometimes.
Men need to understand, and women too, what feminism is really about.
Motherhood was the great equaliser for me; I started to identify with everybody... 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.
Those in the developing world have so few rights - we take a lot for granted in the developed world.
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 know that because I don't come from a wealthy background.
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.
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 am fascinated by history and particularly the Victorian era.
HIV/AIDS has no boundaries.
Music is a great vehicle for communications, and I have a certain platform. I have an opportunity and I have to take it.
