“A stylist might say you look amazing in anything. Your family will always tell you if you look a complete idiot.”

“Anyone who tries to diss me in comparison to Queen, it just renders all their criticisms completely futile. That's quite pleasurable.”

“As a teenager, in my songbook, I used to script what my lighting would be like. I used to dance in my roo;, it was like putting myself in a trance, and making myself feel good about things, almost like a private ceremony of begging people to like you.”

“Everything I do is very visual and very aural, so I don't read music, and I draw as much as I write out lyrics.”

“Hype is scary.”

“I am terrible at relationships.”

“I am totally unapologetic about pop music.”

“I am very suspicious of people.”

“I can't just listen to music walking down the street unless I have a reason to. I can't just listen to music as a piece of junk in the background. It drives me insane.”

“I certainly don't follow fashion. I think fashion, as far as the industry and the whole world that surrounds it, is quite vile, and I'm repelled by it.”

“I collect toys.”

“I completely understand the responsibility I have in continuing the sonic style that I have created.”

“I don't know where my father is from. I just don't. He's lived in so many countries.”

“I found school pretty tough. I got the mickey taken out of me at school.”

“I have opinions on everything. I'm a stubborn old mule. The biggest problem is keeping my mouth shut.”

“I lack trust in others.”

“I love collaborating with strong women.”

“I make mistakes. I say stupid things. I do idiotic things. And, quite frankly, I'm proud of them. Why not make mistakes?”

“I never talk about anything to do with my sexuality.”

“I really want people to know me, to find out about me, and if they really like me, to stick with me.”

“I say I have a midlife crisis every time I start and finish a record.”

“I think, 'How could anybody mock a good pop song?' It is timeless; it transcends barriers; it breaks down every single type of social barrier that you can possibly have. It can deal with the most difficult subjects, even if it abstracts the subject matter.”

“I think my music generally transcends a lot of genres.”

“I want to make big-sounding pop records.”

“I was a show-off as a kid. I was wearing bow ties and matching coloured trousers.”

“I was always told I was ugly. I still think I am ugly. I know I've got an odd face and you can't tell me otherwise.”

“I was always told that I was too strange or that I was too cheesy by different groups of people, like the record companies said I was way too weird and the indie people wouldn't even let me in their band.”

“I was born out of classical music.”

“I was brought up in many different cultures, moving around all the time, and I find my identity in my songs. I project the identity I want to have throughout the songs that I write.”

“I was quite the quiet teenager. I was a bit of a loner, a little bit of an outsider.”

“I wish I had more guts when I was younger because then I would've said things to people's faces instead of just running away all the time.”

“I write songs about fat girls and about men who run off to Mexico.”

“I write songs to turn myself into something else. And then I become that, and I want to become something else.”

“I'd never compare myself to Freddie Mercury because I look up to him far too much. As an artist, not necessarily as a person.”

“Identity for me is something that has to be played with and explored, and not become complacent about or uninterested in.”

“If I really like the smell of something - a piece of tar or my goddaughter's plastic doll - I put a tiny piece in a bottle with a label. I keep them in a fridge in my bathroom.”

“I'm a big illustration and comic book fan. In my eyes, comic books and illustration are the same kind of art forms.”

“I'm always calling my doctor because I'm constantly injuring myself while on the road, like tearing a ligament, blasting my ears or losing my voice. Plus, I'm a total hypochondriac.”

“I'm dangerously generous.”

“I'm fascinated by religion, but I'm not particularly religious.”

“I'm not a great dancer. I know I'm not. But I know that I can move. I can throw shapes, just not in the right order.”

“I'm not creating an enigma or leaving mystery, I'm just respecting myself enough as an artist to give myself room to grow and not to be devoured all in one go.”

“I'm not necessarily that big of a clubbing junkie, but I really like dance music as a genre.”

“I'm obsessed with plastic. I like the syntheticness.”

“In fact, no one has ever really wanted to go on a date with me.”

“In my older songs, I used to hide behind fictional characters to deflect attention away from myself.”

“In the past, it weighed on me because nobody in my family is gay. I had no role models so I had to find my own way.”

“It's very hard to find men's clothes that do what you want, especially when you go through them as quickly as I do. I need them to be flashy, but I never like to be overdressed. I need to make a statement, but I hate wearing too many clothes.”

“I've always said in the press, I can fall in love with a man. I can fall in love with a woman. And I've always said that I have no shame in that.”

“I've never, ever labeled myself.”

“Lady Gaga has a very unjaded intelligence. It's brilliant, 'cause it's anti-snob.”

“Melody is disarming. It's anarchic!”

“Mixed reactions? Sure, I get them all the time. I'm a Marmite artist.”

“Most of the people who write pop music were outsiders at some time in their life.”

“Most people's jobs are rooted in reality.”

“My first record was about childhood. There were a lot of nursery rhyme and fairytale references; it was all about being naive.”

“My life isn't tabloid-friendly.”

“My relationship with my mother is not cute.”

“Never had any idols, ever. I never had any posters, nothing.”

“New York is a bit of a dangerous place to me because you often leave in a blur.”

“Oh, I'm quite harmless in real life.”

“Part of me sees myself as talented, and the other part sees me as strange. Ideas get stuck in your head and nothing changes them. Not even fame.”

“Some people make records that are defined by their sexuality, but mine really are not.”

“Some people say I've got a five-octave range, which is ridiculous. That would mean I'd sing like Mariah Carey or that alien in 'The Fifth Element.' And I'm nothing like that blue alien. I've got a range of about 3 1/2 octaves.”

“Sometimes I dress like what I want for lunch, because all I can think about is having a tuna sandwich.”

“Strangely, I feel that I become increasingly reclusive in my normal life and more open and candid in my music.”

“The best way to make the most serious point in the world is to be as unserious as possible.”

“The music industry doesn't exist the way it used to. You'll never have another star like the stars of the '90s.”

“The stage is my territory, my boxing ring. That's where I'm free.”

“There's always apprehension whenever I launch anything, it seems. When I launch a tour, people are always, 'Oooh, is this gonna work?' And when I launch an album: 'Ooh, is this gonna work?' Or a new video. 'Really?' It's always like that - but I've always acted on the impulse that I have nothing to lose.”

“They say shyness is a form of egotism, and you are only shy because you care too much about what people think of you. And maybe its true, maybe I am just an egotist.”

“To me, being a classical snob in the highest possible way and being an indie snob is just as bad!”

“We all have to be dishes on a plate eventually, with the way we are marketed, but I have no intention of being a cheap Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet.”

“Well, I have to say, most of my clothes are designed and made by my mother.”

“When you're not part of a club, you have to find another way of surviving.”

“You can't believe the amount of speculation you get over your private life.”

“You can't deny your limitations.”

“You never know which gig is going to be your last.”