Shirley Manson Quotes

I am laughably aggressive, and the rest of the band is very laid back, so we mix well.

I was always embarrassed because my dad wore a suit and my mother wore flat pumps and a cozy jumper while my friends' parents were punks or hippies.

A lot of celebrities just want money, fame, power, fancy cars, houses all over the world and have people BOW DOWN to them. To me, that's frightful behaviour.

It's a torturous time when you learn almost everything you really have to know about survival. The important thing to remember when you are living through it, however, is that you have absolutely no idea quite how smart and strong and beautiful the pain will make you. So go forth and suffer...you'll rule the world.

I was a redhead and a middle child; both can make you feel excluded. It's like fighting to be included, in the swim of things. After a while you start to develop a bit of a victim mentality, which isn't great for a happy life.

Mozart was a punk, which people seem to forget. He was a naughty, naughty boy.

The sensation of never feeling good enough or pretty enough will always be there. It's a constant dialogue, and you just learn to be more powerful than that other voice. When you hear it come up, you shut it down.

People don't associate red hair, pale skin, and freckles with beauty.

I am not a sexy woman, I'm not beautiful, I'm not a sex kitten, I don't flirt with people, yet I've been tagged more of sex symbol than women who truly are and I that's solely because I don't reveal too much: people are curious.

I want to hear an alternative viewpoint, and I don't want girls to be defanged and declawed and pretty and mute.

I have women who offer to sleep with me all the time. But not men. They're all talk and nay action - as we'd say in Scotland.

No, I like being a role model because I know how much comfort my musical idols brought me.

I think it's a great thing to have failed in life and then pulled yourself up by the boot straps and actually done something, because then you appreciate it more.

It's unhealthy for people to never express any kind of negativity or doubt. To have balance, you need to address that side of your thoughts as well as the positive. Otherwise, you tend toward crazy.

I say embrace the total geek in yourself and just enjoy it. Life is too short to be cool.

What makes a woman stylish is what she has to say and how she chooses to live her life.

We're living in a time when people are struggling to appear perfect.

A lot of people these days are not music lovers - they just want to be famous which is a very different thing to what I grew up believing in.

I couldn't feel good about myself hanging out in Armani clothes when my girlfriend can't even pay her heating bill. I'd feel foul and I'd be embarrassed.

Here am I. I'm 38. My career's probably never been better. And I've made a decision which may or may not impact on it - I refuse to hide my experience and my age, as if it's something I should be ashamed of. I'm alive. I know lots of people who've never been lucky enough to get to this stage in their life. And I'm not gonna hide it for anybody.

One day I realized that it didn't matter whether people loved me or not.

I get female groupies, but I don't get male groupies. I have women who offer to sleep with me all the time. But not men. They're all talk and nay action -- as we'd say in Scotland. If I go anywhere near most of our male following, they are freaked. Absolutely freaked. I think my height has got a lot to do with it. I'm really tall. I'm five-eight, and with heels, I'm six foot, so people are like. 'Whoa, Amazon!' People are a wee taken aback by that 'cause I think people expect me to be small.

It's definitely an intrinsic part of my makeup that makes me want to see black when everyone else is seeing white.

I wouldn't say that cutting was pleasurable, but there is a sense of euphoria that follows cutting yourself. The quick pinch of pain and the sight of blood snaps you back to the surface and you start to appreciate being alive.

I have a lot of very close girlfriends and sisters - I'm from an all female family. My father often quips that even the cat was neutered!

Possibly because I grew up not feeling very confident about my own physical appearance, I developed internal devices so that I could integrate into society.

You have to watch all sides of your advancement, you have to make sure people's bodies and minds are healthy and their morale is cool before you can really go out and play great music.

I'm fairly in control and I don't like to flirt particularly. I mean, obviously if I meet someone who I think is hot, of course I'll want to flirt with him, But in general I don't use it in day-to-day life.

I am a contradictory mess but I see it as my prerogative to change my mood like the weather.

I just want to live my life a little freely and not adhere to any schedule - just make music and have fun.

I had taken some of my solo music into the record label. They didn't really care for the direction I was moving in and I found it really disheartening. They wanted a pop hit, which I understand in terms of making money. I get that. But what they were going to ask of me was something I wasn't prepared to deliver and I felt kind of trapped. I just stopped writing. I just stopped. It was stifling.

Being a musician makes you very - musicians in general tend to be quite sensitive, I think, to the environment around them, which helps when you are trying to interact with others on screen, to be aware, to be sensitive, and to try to understand what's going on in the scene.

I think women in pop have been declawed and defanged, and they're just meant to look pretty and sing pretty.

In terms of fitting in, you know, I don't have a lot of armor up. I'm a raw nerve and it's really uncomfortable for a lot of people.

The truth is, I've always been wracked with self-loathing and terrible, paralysing depression.

At the end of the day, though, the band members have to be strong. It's down to the individuals in the unit. Listen to me, I'm talking like I'm in the army and this is my squadron.

If you have any opinions at all or if you're even remotely verbal then they're going to call you fiery.

I have a temper on me that could hold back tides.

I would say I'm pretty well at ease with my sexuality, but I'm an individual before I am a female.

I've got a lot of stamina and I enjoy people, so having lots of people around doesn't freak me out.

I've got no timetable. I'm sort of sick of timetables, to be honest.

I mean, I tend to do my own thing, and that usually crosses purposes with everyone around me.

I like the feeling that I'm giving young women self-confidence. It sounds so cliched, but it can be very moving.

A lot of my friends are artists or musicians or single parent families and I'm totally aware of how difficult it is for them to make ends meet.

We should never listen to our feelings. They lead us astray.

Until we command the exact same salary as every male counterpart, I feel a political desire to stand by other women. If we don't stand together, that equality will never be fully realized, and that bothers me.

I'm 45 years old. I used to be a club girl, but that's not my world anymore. That doesn't mean I can't make music that excites. I think it's inspiring to see an artist you grew up with take another crack.

I'm afraid of happy people. They're chemically unbalanced.

Dear Kanye West. It is YOU who is so busy disrespecting artistry. You disrespect your own remarkable talents and more importantly you disrespect the talent, hard work and tenacity of all artists when you go so rudely and savagely after such an accomplished and humble artist like BECK.

If Jennifer Lopez could write songs like Fiona Apple's, she wouldn't have to spend so many hours at the gym.