Annie Lennox
I can't understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven't really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa - 60 percent of people in - infected with HIV are women.
HIV/AIDS has no boundaries.
I want people to start thinking about what it means to be HIV-positive and to ask questions about that.
People ask me so many questions.
I've had my share of dark days of the soul. I try not to focus on it too much so it doesn't get to me.
I would love to meet a dodo.
I'm not particularly attention-seeking.
I love to make music and stay grounded.
One wouldn't want to have the same dilemmas at 50 as one had at 15. And indeed I don't. I have a very different take on life.
I wouldn't say that I've mellowed. I'm less mellow, perhaps.
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.
I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.
Money is a good thing and it's obviously useful, but to work only for money or fame would never interest me.
Feminism is a word that I identify with. The term has become synonymous with vitriolic man-hating but it needs to come back to a place where both men and women can embrace it. It is particularly important for women in developing countries.
Women's issues have always been a part of my life.
I think people in Great Britain are a bit jaded sometimes.
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've never experienced chronic poverty, but I know what it's like to live on £3 a week.
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.
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.
In a sense, the music business and I haven't always been the best of bedfellows. Artists often have to fight their corner. Your music goes through these filters of record labels and media, and you're hoping you'll find someone who'll help you get your work into the world.
When you get to be nearly 60, you do take stock. You don't know what's around the corner.
I am a communicator; that seems to be my natural place. And I'll always be passionate about the world, because it's so bonkers.
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.
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.
Music is a great vehicle for communications, and I have a certain platform. I have an opportunity and I have to take it.
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.
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.
I'd rather support the issues I truly believe in than give my vote to parties that court votes at the time of the election. I like to think that my vote strengthens the green foundation stone.
I'm not really keen on comebacks. Eurythmics was an incredible thing. When I look back on that work, I feel very satisfied with it.
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.Collection: Opportunity
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.Collection: Spiritual
In a way, it's all down to perception, isn't it? And everyone has their own take on everything.Collection: Perception
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.Collection: Thinking
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 insteadCollection: Dream
Each individual is as individual as their fingerprints, and I think that's extraordinary.Collection: Thinking
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!Collection: Wish
To be human is to have a whole spectrum of these experiences that arise within us.Collection: Arise
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.Collection: Strong Women
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.Collection: Respect
I played with the image, because I think image is temporary. It's a projection. It's illusory.Collection: Thinking
You become really ugly when you become very superficial and self-obsessed.Collection: Self
The momentum of time is always going forward. You cannot repeat what has been done before. You can't go back.Collection: Momentum
We think that this is just our world and we don't know what other people are thinking. Music actually is a phenomenal connector in that respect. It's a special language that defines certain boundaries and connects people in a particular way, a very emotional way, I have found.Collection: Emotional
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.Collection: Unique
Everything is illusory. You cannot label something and feel that that is the beginning, middle, and end of it.Collection: Labels
I had a number of different labels. A lot of people assumed I was gay because I was wearing a man's suit, and one had to learn that it's OK, people will do that, and you don't always have to explain it one hundred percent, because they're never going to accept what your own interpretation is. It's all illusory.Collection: Gay
My first understanding of HIV and AIDS was like everybody else from my generation. In the mid-'80s, we heard about this, and it was terrifying, because we knew nothing about how to respond to it appropriately, and we didn't really understand about how the virus is passed. There was a lot of misconception about that.Collection: Understanding