Women From England

"Amy Winehouse: Did she invent white soul? Wearing a beehive? No. But she did something brand new and fresh, altogether as a package, and you see who's in her wake, from the Duffys to the Lana Del Reys. Adele selling 20 million records? That would not have happened if Amy Winehouse was alive."

"I'll battle this bitter finale, Just me, my dignity and this guitar case."

"What kind of fuckery is this? You made miss the Slick Rick gig."

"It's okay in the day, I'm staying busy Tied up enough so I don’t have to wonder, "Where is he?" Got so sick of crying So just lately When I catch myself I do a 180 I stay up, clean the house At least I'm not drinking Run around just so I don't have to think about thinking That silent sense of content That everyone gets Just disappears soon as the sun sets His face in my dreams, seizing my guts He floods me with dread Soaked to the soul He swims in my eyes by the bed Pour myself over him Moon spilling in And I wake up alone."

"Then you notice likkle carpet burn My stomach drop and my guts churn You shrug and it's the worst Who truly stuck the knife in first? I cheated myself like I knew I would I told you I was trouble, you know that I'm no good I cheated myself, like I knew I would I told you I was trouble, yeah you know that I'm no good."

"He walks away, The sun goes down, He takes the day but I'm grown And in your way, In this blue shade My tears dry on their own."

"I don't understand, Why do I stress a man, When there's so many bigger things at hand. We could've never had it all, We had to hit a wall, So this is inevitable withdrawal. Even if I stop wanting you And perspective pushes through, I'll be some next man's other woman soon. I couldn't play myself again, I should just be my own best friend, Not fuck myself in the head with stupid men."

"He left no time to regret, Kept his dick wet, With his same old safe bet. Me & my head high, And my tears dry, Get on without my guy."

"They tried to make me go to Rehab I said no, no, no Yes, I've been black, but when I come back You'll know, know, know! I ain’t got the time, And if my daddy thinks I'm fine Just try to make me go to rehab I won't go, go, go."

"I'd rather be at home with Ray, I ain't got seventy days Cause there's nothing, There's nothing you can teach me That I can't learn from Mr Hathaway. I didn't get a lot in class But I know it don't come in a shot glass."

"Though I battle blind, Love is a fate resigned Memories mar my mind, Love is a fate resigned Over futile odds, And laughed at by the gods And now the final frame, Love is a losing game."

"My destructive side has grown a mile wide and I question myself again: what is it about men?"

"The Moschino bra you bought me last Christmas Put it in the box, put it in the box Frank's in there and I don't care Put it in the box, put it in the box, Now take it, Take the box."

"You've got a degree in philosophy, So you think you're cleverer than me. But I'm not just some drama queen, Cos it's where you're at not where you've been. So what do you expect from me, To hold your head above the sea? And there are you even though you're bigger, Cos don't you know you crush my tiny figure? And anyway we're still so young And this isn't yet the day. I can't help you if you won't help yourself."

"You can't sit down right, Cause your jeans are too tight, And you're lucky it's ladies night. With your big empty purse, Every week it gets worse, At least your breasts cost more than hers."

"You should be stronger than me, But instead you're longer than frozen turkey, Why'd you always put me in control? All I need is for my man to live up to his role, Always wanna talk it through- I'm ok, Always have to comfort you every day, But that's what I need you to do - are you gay?"

"There's no point in saying anything except the truth."

"Life happens. There is no point in being upset or down about things we can't control or change."

"Life's short. Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there is no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands and buts."

"I know there are people in the world who have worse problems than falling in love and having it blow up in your face, but I didn't want to just wake up drinking, and crying, and listening to the Shangri-Las, and go to sleep, and wake up drinking, and listening to the Shangri-Las. So I turned it into songs, and that's how I got through it."

"I always said I never wanted to write about love, but then I went and did that anyway."

"It's not important to me to make other people at ease. I am difficult, but that's 'cause I don’t really give a fuck."

"I'm a songwriter but she [Katie Melua] has her songs written for her... She must think it's her fucking lucky day... It's not like she's singing old songs like Jamie Cullum], she's singing shit new songs that her manager writes for her."

"I want to be with my friends. I'm drunk. I want to phone my mum. She's going to be embarrassed by this conversation. I don't care. I don't give a fuck about it."

"When I think about sex it makes me realise how alone I feel."

"There is no comparison between him and me; he developed a whole new way of making art and he's clearly in a league of his own. It would be like making comparisons with Warhol."

"When it comes to words I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in art – and it's my words that actually make my art quite unique."

"Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!"

"The top is high so your roots are forgottenGiving is good as long as you’re gettingWhat’s driving you? It’s ambition and bettingI said who do you think you are?"

"I've got a couple of those Gossard Wonderbras. They are so brilliant, I swear, even I get cleavage with them."

"It was just the time. It was a swing from more buxom girls like Cindy Crawford and people were shocked to see what they called a 'waif'. What can you say? How many times can you say 'I'm not anorexic'?"

"I don't do any Class A -especially not cocaine - after seeing what it does to people."

"A celebrity now is someone who's on the telly."

"'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.'"

"If you're cold I'll keep you warm If you're low just hold on Cause I will be your safety Oh don't leave home."

"Not sad because you lost me But sad because you thought it was cool to be sad"

"And we danced, and we drank And I've seen something you probably never got the chance to see Don't worry, Mary Cause I'm taking care of Danny And he's taking care of me"

"I've still got sand in my shoes And I can't shake the thought of you I should get on, forget you Why, why would I want to I know we said goodbye Anything else would've been confused but I wanna see you again."

"I haven't ever really found a place that I call home I never stick around quite long enough to make it I apologize that once again I'm not in love But it's not as if I mind that your heart ain't exactly breaking."

"When you're stoned, baby, I am drunk. And we make love, it seems a little desolate It's hard sometimes not to look away And think what's the point when I'm having to hold this fire down I think I'll explode if I can't feel this freely now. When your stalled baby take me home."

"I will go down with this ship And I won't put my hands up and surrender There will be no white flag above my door I'm in love and always will be."

"And the last words I heard him say were I shall return for you my love on Christmas Day..."

"It's all right to make mistakes, you're only human Inside everybody's hiding something."

"Why don't I watch the ocean? My lover's gone. No earthly ships will ever bring him home again bring him home again..."

"If you gave me just a coin for every time we say goodbye Well I'd be rich beyond my dreams, I'm sorry for my weary life I know I'm not perfect but I can smile and I hope that you see this heart behind my tired eyes."

"My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all the morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall it reminds me that it's not so bad it's not so bad"

"If you were a king up there on your throne would you be wise enough to let me go? For this queen you think you own Wants to be a hunter again wants to see the world alone again to take a chance on life again so let me go."

"Oh I am what I am I'll do what I want But I can't hide I won't go I won't sleep I can't breathe Until you're resting here with me I won't leave I can't hide I cannot be Until you're resting here with me."

"Some pre-Socratic “Greek” thinking conceived of the world as a composite whole made up of indivisible parts (atoms) and so searched for a basic “stuff” at bottom. Conway suggests that the distinctions composite/indivisible, whole/part be collapsed without abandoning the pre-Socratic process of division. Divide a whole and you are left not with parts, but with wholes. In this sense, nothing is more “basic” than anything else. Plato and Parmenides began with the One not “at bottom,” but “at top.” The problem is not how to get a whole out of a bunch of parts, but how to account for the diversity of “wholes” without sacrificing unity. Perfect freedom would consist in perfect determination — perfect identification of wholes: hence, the idea of “conformity to God’s will” and the Quaker ideal of simplicity. Sequentially, there is a time and place where/ when “simpler” structures exist and more “complex” structures do not — but atemporally (and from the perspective of the whole) all simply exists. Reading back from that perspective (as Plato and Parmenides attempt to do), the“end” may be seen as informing the “beginning” and the “middle.” If Plato worked backward from the “end” and Democritus worked forward from the “beginning,” Conway worked outward from the middle — and this is the place Leibniz mapped in his comment to Burnett. Since the middle is the one place we can be, it is most assuredly a more secure place to start than the“end” or the “beginning,” where we cannot."

"Anne Conway embraces the fundamental tenet of the occult philosophers that God was not a vindictive Father who wanted to punish his children for their failings. God damned no one; at most, people damned themselves by turning their backs on God, whose infinite love was freely available to everyone. From the end of the seventeenth century, occultists like Lady Conway and Jane Lead, representative of early modern occultism, were extending this belief into universal salvation. God not only wanted to save everyone, eventually he would succeed in doing so."