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
I don't think it's healthy to have secrets; they hang over a family for generations.
I like to rattle cages.
Fashion wasn't a label back in the '70s. We made our own clothes because we had no money.
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.
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.
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.
Punk inspired me.
I do read a lot of autobiographies and biographies but from people who are not in my field - older women, older artists, Miles Davis.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Punk was such an exciting time because there were no rules. You could go and knock on Sun Ra's door - and he was in the phonebook, under Ra!
A lot of the men I've dated have been incapable of even basic kindness.
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.
I always love a song about London or about places. I think Britain could do with more of them; America is so good at that.
I'm not a gifted storyteller, so I write what I know and hope that honesty resonates with other people's experiences.
The truth is the only thing that will move society forwards.
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.
I think I am the Elizabeth Barrett of 2015. Not in terms of genius but in bed a lot.
I'm very true to the old punk ethics of honesty and truthfulness and integrity... and still be authentic.
I'm the angriest and most empathetic person you'll ever meet.
Truth is splintered.
I don't believe in an afterlife. You live on in the people you influence during your lifetime.
I adore quotes.
I have a lot of empathy, and I think that's where mothering starts. You are there to empathise and facilitate.
I've had two great loves: my mother and my daughter.
We're all products of our own environment.
It's the people who transcend their backgrounds who are interesting to me. I have got a bit of inverted snobbery.
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.
Finding another person to love is finding another person to lose.
It's amazing what your brain can do when all your senses are heightened.
Strive to be different and better than what is already out there if you are creating - Benjamin Clementine does that.
People think you're vulnerable when you tell the truth, but it's never hurt me.
It is soul-destroying to have your work and physical appearance picked to pieces.
I still live very much by punk ethics, but in a more grown up way.
I like writing because I can do it anywhere, and I don't need money to do it.
I've only done a handful of things in my life that have stood out. The rest is just broth: mistakes and boredom.
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.
One of my faults is a big mouth. I tend to say the wrong thing without meaning to.
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.
Writing is so much about rhythm. If you've got another rhythm in the room, it spoils the rhythm of the words.
I very much wanted a family and children. I came to it late in life.
Mum had pumped me so full of anger, I couldn't throw it off.
I'm not a nostalgic person.
Girls were nothing in the '70s.
It's me who fixes the roof, unblocks the drain, and changes the plug. I'm Spartacus.
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.
During my childhood and teenage years, everything I knew was at war. My mother and father were at war. My sister and I were at war. I was at war with my atypical nature, desperately trying to fit in and be normal. Even my genes were at war - the cool Swiss-German side versus the hot-headed Corsican.
