Quotes from Annie Lennox

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

Well I thought my time was over, but it's only just begun.

Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Women's issues have always been a part of my life. My goal is to bring the word 'feminism' back into the zeitgeist and reframe it.

You just decide what your values are in life and what you are going to do, and then you feel like you count, and that makes life worth living. It makes my life meaningful.

One wouldn't want to have the same dilemmas at 50 as one had at 15. And indeed I don't. I have a very different take on life.

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.

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

I have a calling in my soul, if you like, to try to make my life in some way worthwhile. What is the value of my existence?

There is a big difference between what I do onstage and what I do in my private life. I don't put my living room on magazine pages.

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.

I'm passionate about everything, actually. I'm passionate about life.

People ask me so many questions.

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

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.

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.

The momentum of time is always going forward. You cannot repeat what has been done before. You can't go back.

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