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" Every time I go to Beirut, I see people and the quality of life going slowly from bad to worse, and from worse to even worse. "

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" I'm Muslim but not really. My family did not care. And I always managed to skip religion classes when I was living in the Gulf, even when they were obligatory. "

" The Arabic world was very interesting in the 1920s to '60s: there was something booming culturally, and I found my culture very desirable when I listened to these songs. "

" I had an Arabic background. but I lived a very scattered childhood. I didn't belong to any one culture, which meant I didn't have musical geographies in my head. "

" When I imagine feminine characters in my songs, they're often bold, strong, passionate, militant, witty, sensual, dangerous. I see those characters as skillful witnesses, figures of change and awakening. "

" I follow my desires, and I'm prepared to take the consequences. "

" As an artist, you need to be true to yourself and free and not put yourself in a box that contradicts with what you feel is needed for a song. "

" My father is an engineer, and my mother raised the three children. "

" I sing 'Beirut' for what the city is for me, but I am also singing as an exile. "

" For me, a taxi is like a public space because so many people get in that space. "

" Singing is a very sensual activity! You engage in it with all your senses and your heart. "

" I always had this crisis: where do I come from? I was never an insider, never an outsider; I was always in the middle. But it means I never have borders in my head. "

" Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis, and you have Umm Kulthum. "

" I'm bored, normally, when I travel. "

" When the public doesn't understand me, it's a battle. So when I choose words, I choose them for their musicality, rhythm, and sense, and I choose the right dialect to express that. "

" I'm inspired by many artists whose language I don't understand. "

" Women are a minority the same way gay people are. "

" I am interested in exploring encounters where worlds meet and not where they separate. "

" I don't relate to what is seen as 'Arab culture.' I relate to what I explore myself, what is around me. "

" When I started doing music, it was out of despair and boredom. I got passionate about it, and I felt that it allowed me to become somebody: an artist who explores her different identities. "

" I've always fought any form of censorship. "

" I have a sense of mission in a way. I've always worked on being free, as a woman and as an artist. "

" I set the bar very high. I'm very tough on myself. "

" My family played a part in bringing communism to Lebanon. "

" I don't think there is only one Arab culture or a pure Arabness. We are very multiple, especially our generation, which is very multilayered. "

" Music liberated me. "

" Maybe I was blessed that my main drive was purely selfish. I needed to make something, make my life better, wider, have poetry in my life, have something that gives me hope on an everyday basis. That was my main drive all along, really. "

" Change means resistance, and resistance means transformation and igniting energies. "

" I was raised by strong women, and the role models I had in music and cinema were strong, too - liberated and provocative. "

" I think our societies - to certain extent, of course, and to different degrees, but almost with no exception - have always been struggling to come to terms with archaic traditions. "

" I wanted to pursue my own thing - I had desires, ideas I wanted to accomplish, and I needed to be on my own for that. "