We were very protective of each other. We made a pact, in the very beginning, that we would never be treated with disrespect by all the male musicians in the community, and we really stuck to it. I think we did the pinky swear thing that, if we ever feel like we're being treated like that, we would just get up and walk out — and we did. We would just say.

Stevie Nicks

The clothes I wear... that doesn't change. I love long dresses. I love velvet. I love high boots. I never change. I love the same eye make-up. I'm not a fad person. I still have everything I had then. That's one part of me... that's where my songs come from. There's a song on the new Fleetwood Mac album [Mirage] that says, 'Going back to the velvet underground/back to the floor that I love,' because I always put my bed on the floor. 'To a room with some lace and paper flowers/ back to the gypsy that I was.'

Stevie Nicks

flower eye song

I preferred not to be laden down with a big instrument. If you're behind a guitar, you get used to being behind a guitar, and you don't really perform because you can't. I wanted to be able to just hold on to the mike and sing.

Stevie Nicks

guitar able bigs

I remember Prince gave me a cassette of Purple Rain. It was like 20 minutes long and he asked me to write something on it. I tried for a month and then he came to L.A. I went to see him and said, "I can't do it. It's too perfect. It's like 'Stairway to Heaven.'" He said OK and then I go, "I can keep the cassette, right?" He said, "Of course and thank you for trying."

Stevie Nicks

purple rain writing

If you're an unattractive girl who's trying to be beautiful with Botox, forget it. If you are a beautiful girl who's trying to be beautiful with Botox, you will look like you're angry all the time.

Stevie Nicks

girl trying beautiful

When you're in a band with three writers, three great writers, you only get one third of the writer thing. So that's the whole reason that I did a solo career. And that's, you know, when I told Fleetwood Mac I was going to do that, they were of course terrified that I would do that record and then that I would quit.

Stevie Nicks

band three careers

I didn't want to look like anyone else - like Janis Joplin or Grace Slick. That's why I never went to any of the big designers.

Stevie Nicks

grace want looks

Little girls think it's necessary to put all their business on MySpace and Facebook, and I think it's a shame...I'm all about mystery.

Stevie Nicks

girl littles thinking

The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business.

Stevie Nicks

rocks names country

It was my 16th birthday - my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do - write songs and sing them to people.

Stevie Nicks

mom song birthday

Thunder only happens when it's raining.

Stevie Nicks

dense thunder rain

Singing is the love of my life, but I was ready to give it all up because I couldn't handle people talking about how fat I was.

Stevie Nicks

love-of-my-life sight talking

That is the saddest thing: He [Prince] always thought I would die of a drug overdose, and here it happens he dies of an accidental overdose.

Stevie Nicks

overdose saddest drug

When you're rich and famous you are the dominant force in a relationship, even if you try hard not to be. I've talked of sacrificing everything for Fleetwood Mac, but I realize now that it is simply the only thing I've ever wanted to do.

Stevie Nicks

sacrificing-everything sacrifice relationship

That's the words: "So I'm back to the velvet underground" - which is a clothing store in downtown San Francisco, where Janis Joplin got her clothes, and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane, it was this little hole in the wall, amazing, beautiful stuff - "back to the floor that I love, to a room with some lace and paper flowers, back to the gypsy that I was."

Stevie Nicks

wall flower beautiful

My other family is Fleetwood Mac. I don't need the money, but there's an emotional need for me to go on the road again. There's a love there; we're a band of brothers.

Stevie Nicks

family-love emotional brother

I don't love the years going by. I'd just as soon stay forty-five. But it's OK because I feel a whole lot better than I did at thirty-five.

Stevie Nicks

thirty feels years

Being able to take care of myself is something that my mom really instilled in me.

Stevie Nicks

able care mom

Stop dragging my heart around.

Stevie Nicks

my-heart expression heart

Rock and menopause do not mix. It is not good, it sucks and every day I fight it to the death, or, at the very least, not let it take me over.

Stevie Nicks

good-day rocks fighting

You don’t need help to write a song. You just need to get over this experience that bummed you out so bad. The relationship you were in is over, it was over a long time ago, and you need to move on.

Stevie Nicks

writing song moving