Top 60 Viv Albertine Quotes

The older I get, the more the lying, the losing touch with your true thoughts and feelings, and the compromises required to fit in seem not worth the effort. It’s my one go on Earth; why spend any more of it conforming to other people’s rules and ideals?

I can always go back to Jane Austen. ‘Mansfield Park’ is full of wise aphorisms and relevant observations of people.

I didn’t pursue happiness at all. I’ve never pursued it. I wasn’t brought up to pursue it.

I think young men and boys are taught to fail. It’s nothing to them; they do sport, they fall over, they shout, ‘I’m all right,’ and carry on. But with girls, they’re so appallingly embarrassed to fail, it’s like it’s considered unfeminine.

Truth is splintered.

I do read a lot of autobiographies and biographies but from people who are not in my field – older women, older artists, Miles Davis.

There was an angry wave in the ’70s, a strong feminist angry wave. I remember thinking – oh my God – I thought it was the beginning of something, and it all went quiet.

Girls were nothing in the ’70s.

If my 18-year-old daughter asked me whether she should lead a truth-hunting, artistic, uncompromising life as I have done, I’d say no, don’t do it. It’s a difficult and lonely path for a woman.

Writing is so much about rhythm. If you’ve got another rhythm in the room, it spoils the rhythm of the words.

I absolutely wasn’t going to write a book if it was just going to be about punk.

Girl bands still do just copy the way men move onstage. To me, that is so backwards, so un-radical.

I’ve burned all my bridges for the sake of getting as near as I can to the truth. And after years of searching for the truth, you find that that’s all you can bear. The truth and nothing but the truth.

I read a lot when I was young. All the obvious, all the greats, from ‘Le Grand Meaulnes,’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Fear and Loathing,’ ‘Catcher in the Rye,’ ‘The Bell Jar,’ ‘The Female Eunuch,’ ‘Valley of the Dolls,’ ‘The Feminine Mystique,’ Tom Wolfe. Then, film took over for me. Film was so exciting in the ’70s.

Fashion wasn’t a label back in the ’70s. We made our own clothes because we had no money.

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.

I can’t stand these autobiographies that start with, you know, ‘I was born in Acton, and I went to such and such a school.’ They just bore me.

It’s all very well for the Kinks and Damon Albarn to sing those songs and sneer at Mr. Nine to Five, but again, they’re white men, so they didn’t have it very hard.

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 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.

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 very much wanted a family and children. I came to it late in life.

A lot of the men I’ve dated have been incapable of even basic kindness.

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 want to say to younger women especially that it’s OK to be an outsider. It’s OK to admit to your rage. You’re not the only person walking down the street feeling angry inside.

It’s me who fixes the roof, unblocks the drain, and changes the plug. I’m Spartacus.

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.

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.

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.

I’m very true to the old punk ethics of honesty and truthfulness and integrity… and still be authentic.

If you are an autodidact, you probably do write more in the rhythm of speech rather than having learnt prose.

I think I function well in most parts of my life but possibly not in that emotional side of my life.

People think you’re vulnerable when you tell the truth, but it’s never hurt me.

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.

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.

I think sometimes men find it easier to be a carer than an accessory. I mean, most women I know in bands are pretty lonely. Guys don’t want to travel around with you. I know loads of women who do it, but guys don’t do it. They’re not brought up for it.

I don’t think it’s healthy to have secrets; they hang over a family for generations.

I like to smell a book before I start it. I fold over the pages, write comments in the margins, leave it on the bed next to my pillow when I fall asleep.

I think I am the Elizabeth Barrett of 2015. Not in terms of genius but in bed a lot.

When I was pregnant, I prayed that my daughter would have brown, green, or grey eyes.

There are more and more of us women out there who won’t be pushed around and will give back a lot more than was bargained for. You have to mean it, though.

My favourite guitar was – I can’t remember if it was ’50s or ’60s – a pale wood Telecaster, and it made me a better player. It was beautiful, so easy to play.

I’m not a nostalgic person.

My mother was so ignorant of what could have befallen me and was probably so exhausted – she was one of the first generation of single parents as well – that it was all a bit overwhelming. So the naivety of parents meant we did have a certain amount of freedom.

The truth is the only thing that will move society forwards.

I’m not a gifted storyteller, so I write what I know and hope that honesty resonates with other people’s experiences.

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.

I’ve had to fight for everything.

I think, often, people who do something new creatively don’t benefit financially from it – it’s the people who come after and make them palatable that make money.

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!

We’re all products of our own environment.

Strive to be different and better than what is already out there if you are creating – Benjamin Clementine does that.

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.

One of my faults is a big mouth. I tend to say the wrong thing without meaning to.

It is soul-destroying to have your work and physical appearance picked to pieces.

With the second book, I didn’t have an ideal reader in mind, as it developed quite out of my control, this detective novel of why am I so full of anger, why did I pick up a guitar when I was poor and uneducated.

It’s amazing what your brain can do when all your senses are heightened.

Both my parents lived through a world war. My grandparents lived through two world wars. And they didn’t go around saying, ‘Look for happiness.’

We were very deliberately not playing 12-bar structures, blues structures, which rock musicians turned into such a cliche. We tried to… listen to the rhythms within ourselves and take the normal words we used every day in our normal thoughts, which girls hadn’t written about before.

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.