"If we were in prison I would give you such a shiv."

"How you survive is by staying true to yourself, being honest, being genuine within your music, not underestimating the intelligence of your fans, challenging them as much as you challenge you, and recognizing the responsability that you have towards each other: your fans and people who have invested a lot of time and effort into what you do. It becomes a question of respect after a while, and honesty, which are not usually two words that you associate with the music business."

"The lyrics are very autobiographic, a complete confession from my point of view. On former records I used to invent characters, through which I could talk about my feelings and fears. I used these characters as selfprotection and catalysator to express myself. This time I didn’t do this. The voice of the storyteller is my own. I think this record is much more honest and personal with these lyrics."

"There is no shame in being hungry for another person. There is no shame in wanting very much to share your life with somebody."

"Considering the content of a person’s character before caring what they say about you is amazingly freeing… I recommend it."

"There is no beauty without some strangeness."

"It’s not that I can’t fall in love. It’s really that I can’t help falling in love with too many things all at once So, you must understand why I can’t distinguish between what’s platonic and what isn’t, because it’s all too much and not enough at the same time."

"You can make perverse work and be a healthy person in your own life."

"Emmett can be a little campy. Okay, a lot campy. But you gotta admit, these days it takes real guts to be a queen in a world full of commoners."

"I would be lying to you if I did not say something. That would make me feel like a politician. A middle of the road opinion that no one finds offensive or challenging. I’m not interested. The stage is not a pedestal. I don’t think your bad people I just think that your aesthetic is horrible. Please treat me with the same respect and candor. I would appreciate the honesty."

"You will always be in love with the idea of love itself. A grand passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do."

"My motto is look pretty and take crap from no one."

"I’m so afraid that Hugh and I won’t have anything to talk about… If I left it up to Hugh, we’d just sit there acting like what we are: two people so familiar with each other they could scream. Sometimes, when I find it hard to sleep, I’ll think of when we first met, of the newness of each other’s body, and my impatience to know everything about this person. Looking back, I should have taken it more slowly - measured him out over the course of 50 years rather than cramming him in so quickly."

"Religious moderates may ignore or overlook the more barbaric passages in their religious books, but by venerating the books in general, they leave us powerless to really oppose the belief systems of fundamentalists. And because moderates tend to ignore the most lunatic parts of scripture, they lose touch with how dangerous these books are when taken literally. In fact, they have trouble believing that anyone does still take these books literally, and so they tend not to recognize the role that faith plays in inspiring human violence. Religious moderates are blinded by their own moderation."