Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

I'm still angry at so much - class, gender, society, the way we are constantly mentally coerced into behaving a certain way without us even knowing it. I feel so oppressed by the weight of it all that I just want to blow a hole in it all.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

Punk inspired me.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

Women are constantly taught to think about what other people are thinking, from those 'Jackie' magazine quizzes - 'What's he thinking?' - to being a grown adult.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

I still live very much by punk ethics, but in a more grown up way.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

I'm the angriest and most empathetic person you'll ever meet.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

I don't believe in an afterlife. You live on in the people you influence during your lifetime.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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!

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

I always felt very free about experimenting with clothes. I was into clothes in a big way from a young age. Not expensive but fun and experimental.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine

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.

Viv Albertine
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
Viv Albertine

I've had two great loves: my mother and my daughter.

Viv Albertine
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
Viv Albertine

If you've written something that moves you and frightens you, you just can't take it back.