I collect items like Elvis Presley clock radios and '50s memorabilia. It inspires a lot of my imagery. I like tasteful trash.
— Pete Burns
I was brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity.
You shouldn't inflict yourself on the public when your fifteen minutes is up.
My behavioural problems are non-existent because all my freakiness, I guess, is manifested in a visual way. And I never have come unravelled.
There's not a part of me, apart from the soles of my feet, which has not had work done.
How did I write 'Spin Me?' I listened to Luther Vandross's 'I Wanted Your Love.'
I'm not really the sort to reflect or look forward. I prefer concentrating on the now.
I view marriage as a sacred institution. I think two men naturally are predators. Gay relationships are a commercial break, not a whole movie.
From a child, I knew I didn't have the face I wanted to have. My mother was a baroness. She was from Berlin; she was a silent movie actress and friends with Marlene Dietrich. So she knew all about film make-up and prosthetics and stuff like that and what they used to do in those days. And she taught me all that as a child.
I never had posters on my walls, and I didn't have any icons, either. I come from a small village in Wirral, and my family didn't watch TV. I wasn't exposed to people with icon status. David Bowie popped up, but I had already shaved my eyebrows off by the time I saw his.
There was one point where my mother was dying of lung cancer, and a journalist dressed up as a nurse and got in the house to get a picture of her, dying of lung cancer and stuff like that, and then you realise the fame's not all it's cracked up to be.
It's not a matter of vanity; it's a matter of sanity. I'll never look forever young, but I'll look as best as I possibly can; I'll look surreal.
You'd never catch me dead in a pair of fishnets! For one thing, they are not practical. And for another thing, it's just like a tacky drag queen.
Over the years, I've had to learn how to deal with people who refuse to take me seriously. That's where I learnt the blunt side of my character.
On reflection, I think the 1980s were a dreadful, abysmal time.
I'm not a camp, throwaway queen; I'm not in Neverland. I'm not Jennifer Lopez with three people to pluck my eyebrows. I've made myself what I want to be - not everybody's cup of tea. And people wanna have a look at me. I fully accept that. People have always wanted to have a look at me.
In 1997, a severe depression hit me, but I didn't respond well to anti-depressants.
I have regular peels and Botox. It's something I'll always do. People redecorate their homes every few years, and I see this as no different. Changing my face is like buying a new sofa.
What a lot of people don't realise about me is that I have no idea what's going on in the media. I don't pay any attention to it, as I consider it mind pollution. The last time I touched a computer was in 2001, and my phone is too old to use the Internet. I just don't enter into it at all on any level.
Surely, marriage is throwing anchor and saying, 'This is where I'm staying. I've made my choice, and this is all I want because I've been on the up and down escalator, through the revolving door, and I want to stand still.' That's what I expected.
If people don't think I can fall into what the norm is, that's their problem and not mine. I'm not the norm; I'm not deluded.
I never have crushes, apart from my husband Michael, I guess, because I was obsessed with him, and I didn't speak to him for nearly a year. I kept going into the restaurant where he worked to look at him.
I don't wanna look like a 65-year-old geezer, you know, and I can't really see it happening.
The amount of surgeries I've had are absolutely minimal compared to the reconstructive surgeries I've had. Probably 300.
I never wanted credit for being a wonderful person or a great human being or looking peculiar. I just wanted credit for the music.
The trouble is that people are all too ready to jump to conclusions about anybody who they think looks a bit strange. They think you must be mentally subnormal.
I fight for the right to be an individual. I have to be meself.
I live a quiet daytime life. I walk everywhere. I lie down. I wash socks. I fry an egg.
I had piercings all over my face, which did look dreadful, but I got them done while waiting for my husband Michael to get a tattoo. I was bored.
The idea of travelling all over the world singing the same songs sounds like hell. How people like Tina Turner still do it with enthusiasm is beyond me.
I'm not interested in gigs unless I really want to do them. I walked away from music in 1997, and then there was a greatest hits in 2002. Thank God, it didn't do too well because the record company wouldn't promote it.
What I'm trying to achieve with my surgery is my own personal satisfaction. It's narcissism.
I've never had my heart broken.
I'm not trying to be a girl by putting on a dress - gender is separated by fabric.
It was a lovely feeling, dying. I can remember being in the hospital, all wired up to tubes and thinking, 'If only you'd take these tubes out, it feels so nice.' It felt so - it felt like being in a bath of velvet. It was such a nice feeling. Everything felt so soft and floppy, and I wanted to go.
I hope when I'm 80 that I get to Heaven and God doesn't recognise me.
