Quotes from Shirley Manson

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.

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.

Selling millions of albums is a sign you've infiltrated the culture.

I feel the same way I did when I was in school. I'm having the same insecurities.

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 think women in pop have been declawed and defanged, and they're just meant to look pretty and sing pretty. You don't really hear a female perspective on the radio, because so many of the songs are being written by men.

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

I love pop music. Who doesn't?

I just am fascinated by other female artists, probably because I feel a kinship with them, no matter who they are and what they do.

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

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

My solo album is dead and buried. We had the funeral. It was sad and I cried a lot but it made such a beautiful corpse that we had an open casket.

Humans all want to beat the clock but nobody ever does.

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

How you present yourself is nobody's business but your own. The stylists have an opinion. The hair people have an opinion. The fans and the management have opinions. Ultimately, you have to trust that you are the safe-keeper of yourself.

I want to hear from the creature who isn't blessed with unbelievable good looks and incredible genes. I want to hear from the geek girl, the forgotten girl, the invisible girl and the miserable girl.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

It's everywhere, constant criticism of women's appearance in magazines and online. It's not easy to navigate.

Pop music seems to be the way radio programming has chosen to support female artists. They have chosen not to support a more provocative voice from women, which I find disappointing.

Starbucks is my main fix and it's usually you people working in there - sometimes they're actually shaking. It just makes me feel horrendous because I've been in that situation.