“When I was 20, political music was the uncoolest thing on earth. But when Bush got elected, that was the first time I started actually reading the news.”

I want to support young girls who are in their 20s now and tell them: You’re not just imagining things. It’s tough. Everything that a guy says once, you have to say five times.

Sometimes, when I have a lot of ideas and I want to do a lot of things, or when I’m traveling,

I guess I’m quite used to not being understood rather than being understood.

If you wake up / And the day feels broken / Just lean into the crack

It’s funny how the hippies and the punks tried to get rid of the conservatives, but they always seem to get the upper hand in the end.

I’m not going to talk like I know about politics, because I’m a total amateur, but maybe I can be a spokesperson for people who aren’t normally interested in politics.

I don’t really have an ego. I’m not that bothered.

I’m a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl . . . leave me now return tonight tide will show you the way if you forget my name you will go astray like a killer whale trapped in a bay

If I had a philosophy, it’s that I support the beautiful side of anarchy.

People ask me questions like, “Oh, you look so theatrical in your photographs. Is that what you’re like when you walk down the street?” It’s like, “Of course not.” It’s such a silly question – it’s like being theatrical is a crime.

I learned what a lot of women have to do is make the guys in the room think it was their idea, and then you back them up.

Football is a fertility festival. Eleven sperm trying to get into the egg. I feel sorry for the goalkeeper.

I try not to record them on my Dictaphone when I first hear them. If I forget all about it and it pops up later on, then I know it’s good enough. I let my subconscious do the editing for me.

We’re always mourning things that have died. It’s a bit much sometimes. These studios have no fresh air, and there’s this unwritten rule that they don’t have windows, either.

As a singer-songwriter, what I do is write about how the human feels.

You want people to take risks, and OK, they fail, but you don’t get the great stuff unless people are willing to risk and not play it safe. And maybe the Icelandic characteristic is better harnessed in these places than on the stock market.

What a scandal, if I die. Yeah, I’m gonna kill myself, get a little headline news.

I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.

Every day I read the newspapers, and no matter how cynical I get, it’s imposssible to keep up.

News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read.

I often feel newspapers are just filling up space. Of course, I also know people who write really long books.

Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose.

During a war, news should be given out for instruction rather than information.

When a large number of organs of the press come to advance along the same track, their influence becomes almost irresistible in the long term, and public opinion, struck always from the same side, ends by yielding under their blows.