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I was born in 1954. My parents were brought up in the war years, and life was hard.
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My first understanding of HIV and AIDS was like everybody else from my generation. In the mid-'80s, we heard about this, and it was terrifying, because we knew nothing about how to respond to it appropriately, and we didn't really understand about how the virus is passed. There was a lot of misconception about that.
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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.
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If you do nothing, if a mother doesn't come for care, if she breastfeeds her baby, the chances of the baby getting HIV are about 40%. So it's about the difference between 40% and zero. This is almost totally preventable. But it requires mothers coming for care and getting the medicines they need, and getting the education and support they need.
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I'm a female but I have a masculine side and I'm not going to negate that part of myself.
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In a sense, the music business and I haven't always been the best of bedfellows. Artists often have to fight their corner. Your music goes through these filters of record labels and media, and you're hoping you'll find someone who'll help you get your work into the world.
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Bulnerable without strength is vulnerable, and being vulnerable means you can be victimized.
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I get very frustrated when I hear women saying, "Oh, feminism is passé," because I think feminism means empowerment. Men can be feminists, too! Many men are feminists. We need feminism. It's not against men; it's about the empowerment of women. It's the respect of women - giving women equal rights, the same opportunities.
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I have a lot to be grateful for.
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I watch 'Mad Men,' I knit scarves, I cook and am very, very normal. Honestly.
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I was never much of a one to win prizes... and certainly never placed too much value on their acquisition.
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If someone says something unpleasant, I can't say it doesn't smart a bit. It always does. Someone can take a really nasty swipe if they want because it kind of feels powerful for a person to write in a paper and get that thing out there.
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Such is the scale and depth of poverty in many parts of the world that it won't be ended overnight. That is why if, like me, you want to see an end to poverty, you need to be in it for the long haul.
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I played with the image, because I think image is temporary. It's a projection. It's illusory.
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It's hard to tell how far women's individuality has come in the past twenty years.
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When you go to Africa, and you see children, they're usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they'd love to go to school.
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Desire, despair, desire. So many monsters.
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Making a Christmas album is looked upon by some people as the thing you do when you are heading towards retirement.
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There's so much stigma around HIV/AIDS. It's a challenging issue, and the people that already have been tested and know their status find it very, very hard to disclose their status, to live with that virus, and to even seek out the kind of information they need. This experience of going to South Africa a decade ago really woke me up to the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, how it was affecting women and their children. I haven't been able to walk away from it.
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I also started writing songs because I had this burning activity in my heart and had to express myself.
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I wasn't trying to be a role model for anybody. I don't think that you can.
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If you come face to face with some really challenging situations and tragic circumstances - you are going in there with a purpose. You are not going in there as a tourist. You're not going there just to merely observe. You have a purpose, and your purpose is to tell that story, to share that story for the bigger benefit of millions of other people. Your purpose is to create that bridge so you can give that story the dignity and the focus that it deserves, and you can become a part of the amplification that needs to be there.
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There's a lot of women's organisations, but they're all working separately. If you get people together, as a collaborative voice, it's strong.
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I think people in Great Britain are a bit jaded sometimes.