Quotes

After winning best actress award at Cannes: "I knew when I said yes that this would be not only my first role but also my last one. I'm very happy that it's to be this one." Asked whether she might one day reconsider, she said: "I have to do records now. I only have 50 years left, and I've got a lot of records to make."

"The album's very much about being alone in your house, in a very quiet sort of introverted mood and you whisper, you sort of improvise. Which is between me and myself." (about her album 'Vespertine')

What probably confuses people is they know a lot about me, but it quite pleases me that there's more they don't know.

Sometimes doing the same thing for a really long time freaks me out, routine freaks me out. But then again, always doing new things can be lazy...it's tricky. I can be very sneaky with myself.

People are always asking me about eskimos, but there are no eskimos in Iceland.

I find it very difficult to draw a line between what's sex and what isn't. It can be very, very sexy to drive a car, and completely unsexy to flirt with someone at a bar.

All people have their own way of dealing with everyday problems. some go for walks, others get drunk and some get laid. I write songs.

I want to work on my character. I think it's in there, a good person. I don't believe in just doing good things, I want to feed my demon as well. One should learn to live both the demon and the angel, you know? But I have a way to go. People excite me, they turn me on. A new person can trigger things in you that you didn't even know you had. If it's musical that's even better. The unknown turns me on.

'Gling-Gló' was a bigger seller in Iceland than 'Debut' and all the Sugarcubes' albums put together! That tells you a lot about Iceland.

When I was growing up, I always had the feeling I was dropped from somewhere else. That's how I was treated at school in Iceland where the kids used to call me "china girl" and everybody thought I was unusual because I looked Chinese.

Femenists bore me to death. I follow my instinct and if that supports young girls in any way, great. But I'd rather they saw it more as a lesson about following their own instincts rather than imitating somebody.

The reason I do photographs is to help people understand my music, so it's very important that I am the same, emotionally, in the photographs as in the music. Most people's eyes are much better developed than their ears. If they see a certain emotion in the photograph, then they'll understand the music. (Index Magazine, July 2001)

About the 2004 Olympics opening ceremony: "I am incredibly honoured to have been asked to write a song and sing it at the Olympics. The song is written from the point of view of the ocean that surrounds all the land and watches over the humans to see how they are doing after millions of years of evolution. It sees no borders, different races or religion which has always been at the core of these games."

I always wanted to be a farmer. There is a tradition of that in my family. I'm a bit of a nerd, I wouldn't mind working in a shop like 12 Tónar selling records, or having a radio show where I could play obscure singles. I would also like to teach music. It's weird the way they teach music in schools like Juliard these days. I know someone who graduated at age 20 as a classical composer, playing music the way they did a hundred years ago or more. I would take kids out into nature, and teach them that they can be right, and not just the teacher. I would let them lead the way. To some degree, at least...

Singing is like a celebration of oxygen.

"I look at the news, I see people starving, I am crying. I'm a total mess. You try to think how you're going to break through this cobweb of problems and bureaucracy and how on Earth anybody is going to make any change." (Live 8 press conference, 7-4-2005)

"It seems to me that the politicians of the rich countries are almost like this VIP that are untouchable - and then the rest of the public of their own countries and of all the other countries of the world are like the "other" chunk that don't have a voice... so, I would like to say that I am part of that huge chunk, which actually is about... 95% of the world!" (Live 8 press conference, 7-4-2005)

About Drawing Restraint 9 (2005): "Trying to even start to explain the film is kind of challenging, but with my little alcohol-pickled brain, it's really tough. I guess that's the point with the way Matthew sets it up, because there is no story. You just have to sit there and enjoy it, a bit like nature. The film has a narrative, but a really abstract one. It's not your average Hollywood movie, let's put it that way." (Telegraph interview, 21/07/2005)

"After doing the research with all the vocals on Medúlla, I was very curious to take that further to a place that was not narrative. Then, when Matthew explained that the film happens on the ocean, I was curious to make vocal patterns that were sort of oceanic. My music is very much about structure, whereas Matthew is much more abstract. I have to have a map and a compass to see the . nal point before I start the journey, and then I can meet 10 lions or whatever." (Telegraph interview, 21/07/2005)

"People think that I'm too eccentric, so it's never going to work. I've always loved pop and leftfield music. My record company thought that Debut wasn't going to sell. I said: I don't care. I really have to do this or I'll go insane. You've just got to do what you do. I came from a punk background, so there was no way that I was ever going to compromise with my music. I have this utopian view that the common person - like your gran, or the guy who works in the sandwich shop - actually wants an adventure, to hear something they've never heard before. I might seem leftfield, but I'm really not trying to be weird, you know." (Telegraph interview, 21/07/2005)

About her album Volta: "I feel in a lot of ways Volta is Post 2. Very restless and sort of schizophrenic. Promiscuous in collaborations, but sincere. It's consistent in its restlessness." (2007)

"Sometimes when I write lyrics there are images in them, usually on a quite simplistic level, like colors. But most often music comes first and then later I sit down with visual people and we chat about what we want to do. I don't look at myself as a visual artist. I make music." (2007)

Being a musician is very easy. My house is full of musical instruments. There's a lot of music, always. But... I don't really go to premieres and hang out with Puff Daddy. (2007)

I like the creative angle. Where people express themself. But I don't like it when it's too much of people being told what to do, and too much like ... fascism, of magazines telling women to starve them-self, and they obey! Or they're like "out of fashion", which is the worst crime you could ever commit! So they get executed for it, publicly! It makes women very unhappy. (2007)

On being 41: I'm pretty comfortable with it when it comes to experience, maturity, er, wisdom; but I'd be lying if I said that it don't piss me off that I don't have the same energy I used to have when I was 20. (2007)

Right now, I feel like I look exhausted, because I'm tired. I'm not vain, like: I want to look pretty. That's never bothered me. But if I see a photograph of me and I look tired, then I'd be more worried than if I looked ugly. (2007)

I don't like drinking with food, I think Iceland people are a bit old-school like that - we think if you drink with food then you're an alcoholic ... but if you drink lots, on a Friday night ... (2007)

I'm not keen on the three-chord thing, The Strokes, or Oasis. It's like boy scout songs to me.

Some people go to a psychiatrist. I write songs.

I am a grateful grapefruit!

[on Kate Bush] To me, Kate Bush will always represent the age of exploring your sexuality, when you change from a girl to a woman. I guess that's what I found fascinating about Kate, she totally stuck out. She created her own look and sound. There's a timelessness to her music.