Viv Albertine

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It's amazing what your brain can do when all your senses are heightened.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
We grew up during the 'peace and love' of the 1960s, only to discover that there are wars everywhere, and love and romance is a con.
- Viv Albertine
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I'd like to be with someone kind who can hold a conversation and is in my age group. If that's too much to ask, I'll do without.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
Finding another person to love is finding another person to lose.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
A lot of the men I've dated have been incapable of even basic kindness.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
It's me who fixes the roof, unblocks the drain, and changes the plug. I'm Spartacus.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
We're so tribal in Britain about music. But my music - my guitar playing, the rhythms, et cetera - just express my personality, because I'm self-taught.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
Girls were nothing in the '70s.
- Viv Albertine
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It's the people who transcend their backgrounds who are interesting to me. I have got a bit of inverted snobbery.
- Viv Albertine
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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.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
I'm not a nostalgic person.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
We're all products of our own environment.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
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.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
I've had two great loves: my mother and my daughter.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
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.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
I very much wanted a family and children. I came to it late in life.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
I have a lot of empathy, and I think that's where mothering starts. You are there to empathise and facilitate.
- Viv Albertine
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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.
- Viv Albertine
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Writing is so much about rhythm. If you've got another rhythm in the room, it spoils the rhythm of the words.
- Viv Albertine
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I adore quotes.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
I do read a lot of autobiographies and biographies but from people who are not in my field - older women, older artists, Miles Davis.
- Viv Albertine
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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.
- Viv Albertine
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I don't believe in an afterlife. You live on in the people you influence during your lifetime.
- Viv Albertine
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Punk inspired me.
- Viv Albertine
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One of my faults is a big mouth. I tend to say the wrong thing without meaning to.
- Viv Albertine
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Truth is splintered.
- Viv Albertine
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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.
- Viv Albertine
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Most female artists - to do what you have to do and to be as honest as you have to be, to be as selfish as you have to be, as tunnel-visioned as you have to be to make art, not entertainment - you can't compromise, really.
- Viv Albertine
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I'm the angriest and most empathetic person you'll ever meet.
- Viv Albertine
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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.
- Viv Albertine
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I've only done a handful of things in my life that have stood out. The rest is just broth: mistakes and boredom.
- Viv Albertine
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I'm very true to the old punk ethics of honesty and truthfulness and integrity... and still be authentic.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
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.
- Viv Albertine
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I like writing because I can do it anywhere, and I don't need money to do it.
- Viv Albertine
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I think I am the Elizabeth Barrett of 2015. Not in terms of genius but in bed a lot.
- Viv Albertine
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Fashion wasn't a label back in the '70s. We made our own clothes because we had no money.
- Viv Albertine
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I still live very much by punk ethics, but in a more grown up way.
- Viv Albertine
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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.
- Viv Albertine
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It is soul-destroying to have your work and physical appearance picked to pieces.
- Viv Albertine
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The truth is the only thing that will move society forwards.
- Viv Albertine
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I don't think it's healthy to have secrets; they hang over a family for generations.
- Viv Albertine
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People think you're vulnerable when you tell the truth, but it's never hurt me.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
I'm not a gifted storyteller, so I write what I know and hope that honesty resonates with other people's experiences.
- Viv Albertine
Image of Viv Albertine
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.
- Viv Albertine