At the end of the day, who I really and truly am is a little girl who loved to play the piano.
— Lady Gaga
As soon as I go out into the world, I belong, in a way, to everyone else. It's legal to follow me. It's legal to stalk me at the beach. And I can't call the police or ask them to leave.
I think a lot of people love to convolute what everyone else does in order to disempower women.
I don't know that my schooling was conducive to wild ideas and creativity, but it gave me discipline, drive. They taught me how to think. I really know how to think.
I want you to feel happy and enjoy the theatre of my life the way that I do. No matter what happens with my music and wherever I go - that heart of that glamorous girl in New York will never be gone.
If you were to ask me what I want to do - I don't want to be a celebrity, I want to make a difference.
Love is an interesting thing. Perhaps I've never been in love before - I don't really know? I think I have. I guess it's subjective in that way.
I am the center of attention in my job every single day; the thought of a wedding to me is exhausting. Why would I put myself through that?
It's honestly true that money means nothing to me.
I live in Hollywood, but you can't make me love Hollywood. I'll never love Hollywood.
I'm not one icon. I'm every icon. I'm an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.
I wouldn't say that I am one of the greatest dancers, but I am really quite good at what I do.
I'm half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times. It's best not to ask questions and just enjoy.
Being beautiful is not so fun when you're in a business with all men.
The fashion I've acquired over the years is so sacred to me - from costumes to couture, high fashion to punk wear I've collected from my secret international hot spots. I keep everything in an enormous archive in Hollywood.
I went to see 'Phantom of the Opera' with my grandma and my mom when I was very little. The stage, the voice, the music... Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been a massive inspiration to me for some time - the storytelling, that deliciously somber undertone in his music.
I'm not a sandwich store that only sells turkey sandwiches. I sell a lot of different things.
None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction - they're always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.
I think women love very hard. We love men. We just love with everything we have. And sometimes, I don't know that that love is met with the type of dignity that we wish it would be met with.
My records are borderline dance records. They've got a real electro-rock heart and soul, and the vibe of the sentiment is pop, but there's a lot of people that were like, 'This is a dance record.'
I went to a lovely school, and I got an incredible education. And I actually think that my education is what really sets me apart, 'cause I'm very smart.
Fashion is that thing that saved me from being sad.
Don't say I hate institutionalised religion - rather than saying I hate those things, which I do not, what I'm saying is that perhaps there is a way of opening more doors, rather than closing so many.
You start to become successful, and everybody starts to drive your money train to the bank, and they're not thinking anymore about what you want as an artist or if any of that even matters to you. It genuinely upsets people in my life that I don't care about money, and that's not my problem.
When people say 'marriage' to me... It's always a means to an end. Everyone's so in a rush to define the relationship.
No press, no television. If my mom calls and says, 'Did you hear about?' I don't want to know nothing about anything that is going on in relation to music. I shut it all off.
I love my friends and my past, and it's made me who I am.
I've worked since I was a five-year-old to be a performer.
I never wanted to look pretty on stage and sing about something we've all heard about before.
Hair is about when you're younger. I am my hair.
I'm not a supermodel. That's not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what's happening on the outside.
When I was younger, I felt pressure to become someone else once I became successful.
I think that promoting insecurity in the form of plastic surgery is infinitely more harmful than an artistic expression related to body modification.
People want you to fail.
We're not trying to make you less of a man. We just want you to love us as deeply and as wholesomely and as fully as we love you.
I spend my money on my props and my creations. I'm an inventor.
If I decide to make a coat red in the show, it's not just red, I think: is it communist red? Is it cherry cordial? Is it ruby red? Or is it apple red? Or the big red balloon red?
It has been hard for me to find it, but I have found love.
Men weren't always happy for me. It was very challenging to watch a woman be so successful.
If I can be a leader, I will.
I actually don't want a throne at all, because I don't view myself as a queen; I view myself as one of my fans.
The only big things I've purchased are my dad's heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary. And that was only because my dad had a Lady Gaga license plate on our old car and it was making me crazy because he was getting followed everywhere, so I bought him a new car.
I love my daddy. My daddy's everything. I hope I can find a man that will treat me as good as my dad.
I'm terrified of therapy because I don't want it to mess with my creativity.
If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don't really know me at all.
In case you're wondering whether I lip synch, the answer is no... people think so because I sound so good.
Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what's underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don't think it ever will be.
I'm confident in who I am. I've come to a place in my life where I've accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That's just the way I've always tried to be. It didn't change when I became a star.
I work all day, do research, sketch my ideas, prepare for performances.
In order for me to be successful... In order to be a great artist - musician, actor, painter, whatever - you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.
