Annie Lennox

Making a Christmas album is looked upon by some people as the thing you do when you are heading towards retirement.

Men need to understand, and women too, what feminism is really about.

It's hard to tell how far women's individuality has come in the past twenty years.

Women's issues have always been a part of my life.

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.

If we value what we've inherited for free - from other women - surely it's right morally and ethically for us to wake up and say, 'I'm a feminist. '

I can't understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven't really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa - 60 percent of people in - infected with HIV are women.

As a creative person, you just put something out into the consciousness of the society you live in.

I'm appalled the word feminism has been denigrated to a place of almost ridicule and I very passionately believe the word needs to be revalued and reintroduced with power and understanding that this is a global picture.

I want to branch out. I want to write. I write poetry. I want to see my children grow up well.

I only want to make music because I have a passion for it.

I love to make music and stay grounded.

Music is an extraordinary vehicle for expressing emotion - very powerful emotions. That's what draws millions of people towards it. And, um, I found myself always going for these darker places and - people identify with that.

I think music is the most phenomenal platform for intellectual thought.

I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community, I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me.

Money is a good thing and it's obviously useful, but to work only for money or fame would never interest me.

We all fight over what the label 'feminism' means but for me it's about empowerment. It's not about being more powerful than men - it's about having equal rights with protection, support, justice. It's about very basic things. It's not a badge like a fashion item.

Although I have lived in London, I have never really considered London my home because it was always going to be a stopping-off point for me, and it has been too.

I am fascinated by history and particularly the Victorian era.

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.