Shirley Manson

“Until we command the exact same salary as every male counterpart, I feel a political desire to stand by other women. If we don't stand together, that equality will never be fully realized, and that bothers me.”

“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.”

“I think a lot of people in their lives feel like they don't fit in, even if it looks like they do. People feel like outsiders even if others think we, the lives we live, have everything. If they are popular or they have everything they are supposed to have. Even then, people still don't feel quite included.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“When somebody asks me a question, I try to be as straightforward about it as possible. I try not to overthink what I'm going to say in an interview.”

“I like the feeling that I'm giving young women self-confidence. It sounds so cliched, but it can be very moving.”

“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.”

“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 have a temper on me that could hold back tides.”

“I have a lot of very close girlfriends and sisters - I'm from an all female family. My father often quips that even the cat was neutered!”

“I plan on doing as much in my life as I possibly can.”

“You don't really hear a female perspective on the radio, because so many of the songs are being written by men.”

“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.”

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

“That's a difficult question, because to consider yourself a rebel is sort of ridiculous.”

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

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

“We're living in a time when people are struggling to appear perfect.”