Looking back, one of the things I love most about my mom was that she never, ever relented. She stuck to her guns right up until the end. She wasn't abusive, but she was never that thrilled that I was gay.
— Rufus Wainwright
I have this horrible, horrible habit of going on YouTube and checking out comments about what I do.
I would love to have a number one hit. The truth is if I don't get one, I'll be fine, but at the same time, the truth is that I'm dying for one, as well.
I like to sing to Verdi, I like singing to Sibelius, and Mahler maybe.
The thing I hate most is false modesty. The artists who are, like, 'Oh, you know, I'm really not that good. Oh, I can't believe I'm here.' I find it vaguely sinister, even.
'Prima Donna' is my kind of love song to opera but it's not the full experience.
I do not consider myself a guitar player. My father is a guitar player - I'm not.
I came out of the closet very young, and I had to cut my teeth pretty fast.
You get to a certain age, and you feel the need to reward yourself just for existing.
My dad and I have always been somewhat competitive.
I definitely have a Luddite's approach to what's going on. I find that as I get older, I get stupider.
I think my mother, more than anyone, knew the importance of inspiration. If it was occurring, you had to use it.
When it came to using elements of your personal life in your work, my mother was the master, or the mistress. There were three or four songs she wrote about my father - songs about failed love.
I'm very fit on tour. I try to eat well, try to sleep. But it's still rock n' roll.
I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can.
Life is a game and true love is a trophy.
I may not lead the most dramatic life, but in my brain it's 'War and Peace' everyday.
One of the main destructive forces within our family has been these runaway egos. I think if you look at any show business family, that struggle exists.
I am undefinable. I don't fit into any particular category.
My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it, really.
I'm not born again, I'm not Kabbalah, God forbid, but I did have an experience hitting 30 that I needed to lean on something that assured me that everything is going to be okay. I had to regain a lot of my belief in fairy tales, in happy endings.
I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.
That will to love is very powerful. But it doesn't always win.
I'm hyper light-sensitive and must sleep in the equivalent of a sealed tomb.
In the music business, to survive for so long, you have to be able to cut off from your emotions sometimes. And being a father, you're faced with that situation. I know that my father was, with me. I understand why he had to be distant, because to rip yourself away, time after time, is almost more devastating.
I bemoan the fact that all my famous friends have places in St. Bart's and I have to go to Montauk.
My love of maple syrup. I've been known to knock back a can over a couple days: A swig here, a swig there, and next thing you know it's gone. It's a habit I have to stave off. I don't want to lose all my teeth.
I've had my ups and downs, and I definitely have a sense - in America, especially - that once you've made your mark and gotten your Rolling Stone piece and your Grammy nomination, that they're on to the next piece of meat, and they don't necessarily like to follow the twists and turns of an artistic career.
You know the question: 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall?' Answer: 'Practise?' Well, in my case, I got there by not practising. I didn't finish my music degree. And when I got into the pop world, I decided not to conform because I figured that the point of being an artist was that you shouldn't be like anyone else.
I should write a musical. That is probably one of the final areas that I should pay attention to, because it does kind of involve everything. It's got theatre, it's got young, pretty people... And it's got money!
I believe a lot of our lives are spent asleep, and what I've been trying to do is hold on to those moments when a little spark cuts through the fog and nudges you.
Why be in music, why write songs, if you can't use them to explore life or an idealized vision of life? I believe a lot of our lives are spent asleep, and what I've been trying to do is hold on to those moments when a little spark cuts through the fog and nudges you.
Let the little fairy in you fly!
I've developed into quite a swan. I'm one of those people that will probably look better and better as I get older until I drop dead of beauty.
I'll be honest, I worry sometimes about what I've done. I have tied my whole person to my art and, whatever it takes to get that hook, I will go there and do it.
I have an ounce of Lady Gaga's full-bodied ambition.
I could always escape into this demi-monde of homosexuality, which I feel really indebted to. It stopped me being a 'mummy's boy.'
I've paid the price; I definitely have a reputation that precedes me, and there is a camp that plots my demise. But then again... it's funner that way.
There is this church that I go to a lot in New York. I'm not religious but I love lighting candles and stuff. I find it useful.
The artist who gave me the most inspiration and direction, especially as a singer - and I absolutely consider myself a singer, 100 percent - is Nina Simone. She's my ultimate pianist-singer-type person.
My cheeks explode when I smile. That's why I have to look so nonplussed.
I want to carve out a serious period of time to focus on the next opera without any distractions. And to do that you need money.
I think I've done a pretty fantastic job, but of course I want to sell millions of records.
For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.
Once illness strikes, you realize there's not a lot of time for you to do what you really need to do. And there's no time like the present.
I've been thinking of trying my hand at rap. I've been recording snippets on my BlackBerry.
I have managed to eke out a good and substantial existence. I'm not shoveling gold bricks or anything, but I do very, very well.
It seems like the older I get, the more unreal the world becomes.
There's no life without humour. It can make the wonderful moments of life truly glorious, and it can make tragic moments bearable.
Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn't.
