Quotes from Shirley Manson

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

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.

There's nothing I've done that I feel a lot of regret over because I stuck to my guns, even when it got uncomfortable - and it will get uncomfortable because you're going up against the wall.

No, I'm not Shirley the girl, I'm the woman on MTV with the big boots.

And then there's all these other creeps that surround your band and suck off you like leeches and try to manipulate you and your business. You have to watch like a hawk. I'm always ready to fight. I see it very much as a battle.

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.

Somehow or another, my mother taught me to push through my fear, always. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

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.

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

I refuse to step inside the ring and fight like a gladiator against my own. I'm not playing that game. Any woman who has survived a year or more of making music has my undying respect.

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.

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.

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.

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

In the '90s, the radio was still alive with all different kinds of points of view, and I think that's why people are longing for that time. It was the first time that alternative music broke through to the mainstream.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

People in day-to-day life tend to skim the surface of things and be polite and careful, and that's not the language I speak. I like talking about feelings, fears and memories, anguish and joy, and I find it in music.