Annie Lennox Quotes & Sayings

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

I didn't want to be a Barbie doll. I didn't want to be a passive entertainer. It wasn't how I wanted to present myself. — Annie Lennox

People ask me so many questions. — Annie Lennox

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

Desire, despair, desire. So many monsters. — Annie Lennox

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. — Annie Lennox

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

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

We are not consistent. We have both these dark sides and some light as well. — Annie Lennox

If people like your music, you can't guarantee they're going to love you. — Annie Lennox

I stand on the shoulders of giants that have gone before me, in terms of affording people like myself, women, the access to democracy, the vote, medical treatment, education, everything that I've been given. It's all been earned. Therefore I feel it's incumbent on me personally to just contribute something, to add to a collective voice that needs to be here right now, to build it up to a tipping point, to make the world aware that women's rights still have to be addressed and that the word 'feminism' has been devalued and needs to be reclaimed. — Annie Lennox

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

The worst thing someone gets is isolated. Isolation is the darkest part of any condition. — Annie Lennox

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

Women empowering other women.They get the psycho-social support. They become part of a community. — Annie Lennox

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

Music is a great vehicle for communications, and I have a certain platform. I have an opportunity and I have to take it. — Annie Lennox

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

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

I want people to start thinking about what it means to be HIV-positive and to ask questions about that. — Annie Lennox

I watch 'Mad Men,' I knit scarves, I cook and am very, very normal. Honestly. — Annie Lennox

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

I think Scotland could take a stand in a wonderful way, ecologically and morally and ethically. — Annie Lennox

I'm not a risk taker physically. I just have no interest in swinging myself off a mountaintop or parachute gliding or skiing down a totally vertical drop. These things don't interest me in the slightest, but I get so caught up in the color or the texture of the sounds of something. That's so funny to me. — Annie Lennox

To be human is to have a whole spectrum of these experiences that arise within us. — Annie Lennox

There are so many things that we could do to change the world in so many aspects. There are people working in nonprofit organizations, tackling the issues that we so desperately need to face, while governments fail so appallingly. — Annie Lennox

There needs to be a shift in consciousness; there needs to be an absolute wake-up call before society can actually make the kind of incredibly significant changes that need to happen. — Annie Lennox

My issue with the state of women became incredibly stimulated when I was visiting developing countries and it became obvious that women bore the brunt of so many things in society. — Annie Lennox

I played with the image, because I think image is temporary. It's a projection. It's illusory. — Annie Lennox

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

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

I would love to meet a dodo. — Annie Lennox

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

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

I wanted to create something that was quite edgy and belonged to me. It wasn't about my sexual orientation, because I'm heterosexual. It was saying that appearance is just temporary, and I want to be as strong as a man. — Annie Lennox

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

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. — Annie Lennox

I'm a female but I have a masculine side and I'm not going to negate that part of myself. — Annie Lennox

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

Something that's of common interest to every man, woman and child on the planet must surely be the notion of 'Peace'. Without 'Peace' we cannot survive. Valentine's Day is on the 14 February. Christmas Day is on the 25 December. Peace Day has been established by the United Nations on the 21 September, and the whole world is invited to participate. — Annie Lennox

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

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

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

I don't feel there are enough women artists out there who are saying anything of tremendous relevance. — Annie Lennox

I knew that I wanted to be a singer/songwriter when I was much younger and, um, I've been able to, you know, to realize that dream and I'm very pleased with that ... I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry ... Music is an extraordinary vehicle for expressing emotion-very powerful emotions. — Annie Lennox

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

When things are starting to work, you get up at five in the morning thinking, what are we going to do today? You stay up until one in the morning getting it done, and then you start the next day with the same energy, because it's working! — Annie Lennox

I think people in Great Britain are a bit jaded sometimes. — Annie Lennox

Success breeds the excitement to continue going. — Annie Lennox

In memory, you can access something from the past, anything that you've experienced that you remember - it's there. Now, you might have a memento of it in a photograph or in a film or a building or some clothes that you wore. There might be something that connects you to this memory. But all of us are just all caught in this time, whatever that is. — Annie Lennox

I was born an original sinner
I was born from original sin
and if I had a dollar bill
for all the things I've done,
there'd be a mountain of money piled up to my ( ... ) — Annie Lennox

If one woman is suffering, then we are all suffering, and we need to put a voice to that. — Annie Lennox

I'm very intrigued that in this culture of reality television and celebrity - which is an enormous industry and generates billions and billions of dollars - we're so resourceful. — Annie Lennox

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

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

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. — Annie Lennox

I want to be true to who I am. — Annie Lennox

Imagine living in abject poverty and not knowing anything other than that for generations. Or alternatively, imagine being born into a really wealthy family, but there was no real love. Everyone's living these extraordinary, interesting lives whether they know it or not. — Annie Lennox

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. — Annie Lennox

Churches, depending on their policy, can do fantastic work with people in the community. — Annie Lennox

Actually, I'm quite a domesticated person. I love the little things of home. — Annie Lennox

I'm not living my life under the spotlight for anybody. — Annie Lennox

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

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

Pop stars are so busy having a career that they don't really have a lot of time for activism. — Annie Lennox

Just having medicine isn't equivalent to medical care. You need the health systems, you need to create the social framework so that people feel safe. — Annie Lennox

In the States, the HIV transmission from mother to child is almost completely preventable - the only mothers who really do transmit it are the ones who don't come in for care. If a mother in the United States or in Europe or in the UK comes to care and gets her medicines, she will have an HIV negative baby. Most people don't know that. — Annie Lennox

One realizes after a long time that, actually, we are contradictory, all of us. — Annie Lennox

If you come face to face with some really challenging situations and tragic circumstances - you are going in there with a purpose. You are not going in there as a tourist. You're not going there just to merely observe. You have a purpose, and your purpose is to tell that story, to share that story for the bigger benefit of millions of other people. Your purpose is to create that bridge so you can give that story the dignity and the focus that it deserves, and you can become a part of the amplification that needs to be there. — Annie Lennox

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

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. — Annie Lennox

Fashion is temporary; fashion is a race. What it's doing is giving you something that you say, "This is the outer wrapping of me." Style is something else. It's not quantifiable. Fashion is about selling. Fashion is about what's in. Style is independent of that; style is individual. — Annie Lennox

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

Men need to understand, and women too, what feminism is really about. — Annie Lennox

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

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

I find beauty in a very independent state. It lives quietly. It's there to be discovered. — Annie Lennox

As you get older, there will be a new challenge arising. What you thought you'd accomplished once, maybe the goal post has shifted and it's not what you're pursuing anymore, because you're not interested in that anymore, you know? — Annie Lennox

Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death. — Annie Lennox

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

The music scene in the '70s was like the United Kingdom in the '70s - we had a lot of unemployment, we had inflation, we had a lot of strikes going on, on a national scale, and a lot of discontent. That was reflected in the music. — Annie Lennox

I see myself as a traveller. — Annie Lennox

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

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

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

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

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

I was never much of a one to win prizes ... and certainly never placed too much value on their acquisition. — Annie Lennox

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

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

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

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. — Annie Lennox

I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community, I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere ... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me. — Annie Lennox

I think that the thing is, all those years of creating music or trying to express something of a dark shadow, an existential angst that I have felt most of my life and still feel today, to not be overwhelmed by it. Music, in a way, is a great vehicle, a means by which one can express all these somewhat contradictory feelings. — Annie Lennox

I'm passionate about everything, actually. I'm passionate about life. — Annie Lennox

You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul. — Annie Lennox

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

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. — Annie Lennox

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

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