Viv Albertine Quotes

Viv Albertine

Profession : Musician

Birth : December 1, 1954

I have a daughter. I have my imagination. I have friends. I, in no way, am going to louse that up with some idiot man, frankly. They drag you down - I'm talking about my generation of men.

Viv Albertine

I feel sorry for girls getting caught up in it and still thinking they have to define themselves and their success by being in a relationship, straight women, straight girls, by being in a heterosexual relationship or being in any relationship, as if that's in any way a mark of what kind of successful human being you are.

Viv Albertine

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

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

I've never had any interest in reading the real-life stories of criminals. I don't want to get inside their heads.

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

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?

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

I haven't found music comforting since the '80s, but it doesn't mean it's not good - it just doesn't work for me. It's shocking to me because music was my religion from the age of 11, and it's like I don't believe in my god any more.

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

In the 1970s, girls didn't do anything. It wasn't their fault. For me and the other working-class girls I hung around with, our route was plotted - you were a secretary and a wife. I wanted to hitchhike around the world, go on motorbikes, be in bands.

Viv Albertine

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

Viv Albertine

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.'

Viv Albertine

You've got one life: find your voice within it.

Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine

I could be completely mad and sound like David Icke, but I just find people with blue eyes colder, less passionate, and more calculated people.

Viv Albertine