Annie Lennox quotes

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Past #Thinking #Trying

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

#Inspirational #Change #Kindness

You have to face things, have faith in what you do and go for it. Think, 'What's the worst that could happen?'
-- Annie Lennox

#Thinking #Have Faith #Faces

I love to be individual, to step beyond gender.
-- Annie Lennox

#Steps #Individual #Gender

For me, pointing and clicking my phone is absolutely fine. People say that isn't the art of photography but I don't agree.
-- Annie Lennox

#Photography #Art #Phones

Making a Christmas album is looked upon by some people as the thing you do when you are heading towards retirement.
-- Annie Lennox

#Christmas #Retirement #People

Such is the scale and depth of poverty in many parts of the world that it won't be ended overnight. That is why if, like me, you want to see an end to poverty, you need to be in it for the long haul.
-- Annie Lennox

#Long #Depth #Needs

There must be an angel playing with my heart.
-- Annie Lennox

#Angel #Heart #My Heart

I'm appalled that the word 'feminism' has been denigrated to a place of almost ridicule and I very passionately believe the word needs to be revalued and reintroduced with power and understanding that this is a global picture. It isn't about us and them.
-- Annie Lennox

#Believe #Understanding #Feminism

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Gay #Thinking #Drug

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
-- Annie Lennox

#Dream #Regret #Book

I have always felt a little homeless. It's a strange thing.
-- Annie Lennox

#Littles #Strange #Homeless

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

#Children #Growing Up #Writing

There are two kinds of artists left: those who endorse Pepsi and those who simply won't.
-- Annie Lennox

#Artist #Two #Pepsi

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Powerful #People #Emotion

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

#Hate #Shopping #Crowds

HIV/AIDS has no boundaries.
-- Annie Lennox

#Hiv #Boundaries #Aids

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?
-- Annie Lennox

#Empowerment #Feminism #Done

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Motivational #Successful #Creating

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Ideas #Challenges #Essentials

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Jobs #Class #Worry

A lot of music you might listen to is pretty vapid, it doesn't always deal with our deeper issues. These are the things I'm interested in now, particularly at my age.
-- Annie Lennox

#Birthday #Issues #Age

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

#Thinking #Intellectual #Platforms

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#People #Bird #Hiv

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Age #Skins #Ease

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Fighting #Artist #Media

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Boys #Men #Thinking

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Thinking #Mad #Ordinary

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Dog #Song #Baby

It's a very telling thing when you have children. You have to be there for them, you've got to set an example, when you're not sure what your example is, and anyway the world is changing so fast you don't know what is appropriate anymore.
-- Annie Lennox

#Children #Example #World

If someone says something unpleasant, I can't say it doesn't smart a bit. It always does. Someone can take a really nasty swipe if they want because it kind of feels powerful for a person to write in a paper and get that thing out there.
-- Annie Lennox

#Powerful #Smart #Writing

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Taken #Artist #Years

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Country #Hate #Men

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Girl #Children #Issues

I haven't lived my life through my daughters. Some parents devote everything to their children, which must be so hard, and it's very beautiful. But I'm a working parent, so I've always kept my own life.
-- Annie Lennox

#Beautiful #Daughter #Children

Life expectancy in many parts of Africa can be something around the age of thirty five to thirty eight. I mean you're very fortunate if you live to that age. In fact when I went to Uganda for the first time one of the things that occurred to me was that I saw very few elderly people.
-- Annie Lennox

#Birthday #Mean #Uganda

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Black And White #House #Tvs

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Powerful #Men #Media

I would like to see the gay population get on board with feminism. It's a beautiful organisation and they've done so much. It seems to me a no-brainer.
-- Annie Lennox

#Beautiful #Gay #Feminism

I've never been a social person. When I grew up, the other girls would all be combing their hair and exchanging lipstick, and I just couldn't do that group thing.
-- Annie Lennox

#Girl #Hair #Groups

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Home #Stopping #London

If I hadn't been a singer, I might have been a photographer or an artist. But it's singing I love. I sing all the time, and I feel really good that I've expressed myself.
-- Annie Lennox

#Artist #Singing #Singers

When you get to be nearly 60, you do take stock. You don't know what's around the corner.
-- Annie Lennox

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Strong Women #Mean #Opportunity

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Different #Want #Dilemma

I was born in 1954. My parents were brought up in the war years, and life was hard.
-- Annie Lennox

#War #Years #Parent

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Party #Believe #Thinking

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

#Thinking #Israel #Causes

You just decide what your values are in life and what you are going to do, and then you feel like you count, and that makes life worth living. It makes my life meaningful.
-- Annie Lennox

#Meaningful #Meaning Of Life #Like You

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Dark #Focus #Soul

I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.
-- Annie Lennox

#Passion #Want #Music Is

I wouldn't say that I've mellowed. I'm less mellow, perhaps.
-- Annie Lennox

#Mellow

I'm not a Christian, but I think the Christian message is a good one.
-- Annie Lennox

#Christian #Thinking #Messages

People ask me so many questions.
-- Annie Lennox

#People #Ask Me

I'm not a saint. I'm not an angel. I'm a human being.
-- Annie Lennox

#Angel #Saint #Humans

The poetic side of me is Scottish.
-- Annie Lennox

#Scotland #Sides #Poetic

I understand what it is for a woman to want to protect their children and give them the best they can.
-- Annie Lennox

#Children #Giving #Want

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Spiritual #People #Fickle

You're never quite sure where the song is going, because you might not find the word to rhyme with the end of the line. You have to find associative meaning to get you there. So it's rather like doing a crossword puzzle backwards. A kind of strange, three-dimensional, abstract crossword puzzle.
-- Annie Lennox

#Song #Never Quit #Three

Poor countries are being forced to deal with an unprecedented health crisis without the means to tackle it . Governments can only show how seriously they are taking this crisis by taking immediate action to provide four million extra health workers and to grant those in need access to affordable medicines.
-- Annie Lennox

#Country #Mean #Medicine

We would like to see the virtual elimination of the transmission of [HIV] from mother to child by 2015. ... We believe it can be achieved with political will.
-- Annie Lennox

#Mother #Children #Believe

Let me be the only one to keep you from the cold Now the floor of hell is laid, the stars are bright as gold They light for you, they shine for you They burn for all to see Come into these arms again and set your spirit free
-- Annie Lennox

#Song #Stars #Light

I mean, I'm 48 years old and I've been through a lot in my life - you know, loss, whether it be death, illness, separation. I mean, the failed expectations... We all have dreams.
-- Annie Lennox

#Dream #Mean #Loss

As a creative person, you just put something out into the consciousness of the society you live in.
-- Annie Lennox

#Creative #Consciousness #Persons

When you go to Africa, and you see children, they're usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they'd love to go to school.
-- Annie Lennox

#Children #Dirty #School

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!
-- Annie Lennox

#Wish #World #End Of The World

I have a lot to be grateful for.
-- Annie Lennox

#Grateful #Be Grateful

I'm not particularly attention-seeking.
-- Annie Lennox

#Attention #Attention Seeking

Charity is a fine thing if it's meeting a gap where needs must be met and there are no other resources. But in the long term we need to support people into helping themselves.
-- Annie Lennox

#Long #People #Support

I also started writing songs because I had this burning activity in my heart and had to express myself.
-- Annie Lennox

#Song #Writing #Heart

I am fascinated by history and particularly the Victorian era.
-- Annie Lennox

#Eras #Victorian Era

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

#Girl #Want #Stage

I don't have clear-cut positions. I get baffled by things. I have viewpoints. Sometimes they change.
-- Annie Lennox

#Cutting #Viewpoints #Baffled

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Hate #Thinking #People

I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.
-- Annie Lennox

#Albums #Want #Corporations

I enjoy multi-tasking, so I want to do a lot of different things. I want to keep all the plates spinning.
-- Annie Lennox

#Different #Want #Spinning

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?
-- Annie Lennox

#Soul #Trying #Calling

I have always been a very visual person and a keen observer.
-- Annie Lennox

#Visuals #Persons

I like where I live here, in London.
-- Annie Lennox

#London

I love to make music and stay grounded.
-- Annie Lennox

#Grounded

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.
-- Annie Lennox

#Girl #Voice #Competition

Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.
-- Annie Lennox

#Compassion #Empathy #Brutality

Fear paralyses you - fear of flying, fear of the future, fear of leaving a rubbish marriage, fear of public speaking, or whatever it is.
-- Annie Lennox

#Flying #Leaving #Rubbish

Fame for fame's sake is toxic - some people want that, with no boundaries. It's unhealthy.
-- Annie Lennox

#People #Toxic #Want

The world is a heartbreaking place, without any question.
-- Annie Lennox

#Heartbreaking #World