Rufus Wainwright

I definitely consider 'Poses' - the whole album in fact - to be kind of a miracle. Like the last breath of that moment when decadence is healthy, 'Poses' encapsulates that feeling. It's a kind of song and a kind of album that I'll never be able to repeat.

I basically have needed to go to the piano and give voice periodically to, you know - I'm always afraid to describe it as a kind of therapeutic process, but nevertheless it was a type of unloading that had to occur due to my personal life with my mother's health or just my professional trials and tribulations.

I may not lead the most dramatic life, but in my brain it's War and Peace everyday.

For better or worse, I've always been curious musically. Whether it's opera or Judy Garland or pop, I've deliberately sought those things out. I've never wanted to do the same things over and over. Some think I've accomplished what I set out to do, and others consider me a dilettante.

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.

I may not lead the most dramatic life, but in my brain it's 'War and Peace' everyday.

There's prejudice everywhere. I don't think the music industry is as bad as the movie industry. But I have taken a few hits over the years for my sexuality, and for being honest about my life. In the end, it's the music that rules the roost.

I was reared on folk music.

For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.

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.

I think we could all be a bit more elitist.

I made the decision to take on board the critical feedback. Reviews are something you can easily ignore as a performer or writer but I chose to not ignore them here and I think that I benefited. I think I'm stronger for it - and I have a tougher skin as a result.

Unless I have my aunt or my boyfriend to take care of me, I'm a little pathetic.

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.

My mother's songs are really turning out to be masterpieces. I have inherited this incredible legacy and am so fortunate to bathe in her sensibilities. It is tinged with tragedy. I'd much rather she was here in person, but there is still a positive force to come out of her death and that is having the gift of music that she gave.

I definitely have a Luddite's approach to what's going on. I find that as I get older, I get stupider.

I definitely try to broaden the scope of music. I don't know if it's pop or classical or what, but I'm religiously challenging myself all the time, for better or for worse.

I like to try new things.

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.

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.

You get to a certain age, and you feel the need to reward yourself just for existing.

I'm very much a romantic. I'm highly attuned to an older sensibility, which I believe is alive and well. We're not that far ahead of the Romantic Age in society.

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.

Being uncool is being pretty much the coolest you can be.

When I'm in the classical world, I really treat it as exactly classical and I don't try and spruce it up or jazz it up or make it easier for the masses.

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.

My dad and I have always been somewhat competitive.

When it comes to sitting down and composing, there is no hesitation, no concern, no critics breathing fire down my neck. For me, writing a song is the purest part of all. No one can mess with that.

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.

I like to sing to Verdi, I like singing to Sibelius, and Mahler maybe.

I am always writing; if you want to survive in this business, you need to keep working, keep creating and never stop the output.

My mother had a lot of parties when I was a child. There'd always be a moment when she would place me on the upright piano and have me sing Somewhere 'Over the Rainbow'.

I still believe that love is the most powerful force in the world, even though I am yet to experience it fully.

Every video I do is over budget by the time I walk on set. I am massively extravagant in my personal habits.

My cheeks explode when I smile. That's why I have to look so nonplussed.

Life is a game and true love is a trophy.

Arguably, the relationship between Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland is one of the great mother-daughter sagas of all time. Certainly, for certain people, and a lot of them, Liza is the bigger star. Liza is the more kind of viable legend, shall we say. Then there's the other camp, where Judy is the one.

I'm very fit on tour. I try to eat well, try to sleep. But it's still rock n' roll.

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 think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.

I've always gravitated towards opera, and the Royal Opera House is quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth.

I came out of the closet very young, and I had to cut my teeth pretty fast.

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.

That will to love is very powerful. But it doesn't always win.

In the present world, this technological, psychotic, politicised, nonsensical world, you have to believe that the good guys are going to win! That evil will be banished somehow!

I'm your knight in shining armor. I'm here to save you from Linkin Park.

It seems like the older I get, the more unreal the world becomes.

I think I've done a pretty fantastic job, but of course I want to sell millions of records.

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.

Some people go to Berlin to get more cutting edge; I went and started wearing lederhosen and going to visit baroque palaces.

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!

The Germany I was enthused with was more old fashioned and kind of romantic. I just got there, and the next thing you know, I had this huge gilded album. It was kind of an amazing experience because I didn't intend it to be that way.

Writing an opera and premiering in England, you could say I was going right into the eye of the storm and I came out successfully. A little tattered and bruised, but so what, I made it.

I find so many songwriters today are missing an element... either the production is amazing but the songs aren't, or it's the other way around.

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 wish I could just relax sometimes and make some money, but I always feel like I have to prove some kind of big, profound point.

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.

After years of hotels, I'm horribly inept at cleaning up after myself.

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.

Let the little fairy in you fly!

I'm definitely a fan of juxtaposition. Using the most beautiful line to say the most horrific thing - I think one of the main things in songwriting is definitely friction between the words and the melody.

I have an ounce of Lady Gaga's full-bodied ambition.

I bemoan the fact that all my famous friends have places in St. Bart's and I have to go to Montauk.

When I wrote the opera, I made a deal with myself that for at least an hour a day I would work on it, even if it meant just sitting on my piano bench, staring into space and thinking about it. It's about keeping it regular, like your bowel movements - let's get real: it's your bodily artistic movements! It comes from the same place.

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 have this horrible, horrible habit of going on YouTube and checking out comments about what I do.

I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can.

My parents were serious working musicians, but they were not stars - not like pop stars that you have now. They had to make a living and that meant touring, working hard, going on the road - and we were roped in.

I'm hyper light-sensitive and must sleep in the equivalent of a sealed tomb.

I could always escape into this demi-monde of homosexuality, which I feel really indebted to. It stopped me being a 'mummy's boy.'

My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it, really.

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.

The moment something happens to one you love, it's twenty times more intense. You experience pain and enlightenment on a much vaster scale.

Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn't.

I do not consider myself a guitar player. My father is a guitar player - I'm not.

There's no life without humour. It can make the wonderful moments of life truly glorious, and it can make tragic moments bearable.

Crazy as it sounds, I'm a believer in destiny and serendipity, and I have had cosmic experiences all my life. Something told me I was meant for greater stuff. And look, I've had a baby! And I've written an opera!

I think my mother, more than anyone, knew the importance of inspiration. If it was occurring, you had to use it.

I've been thinking of trying my hand at rap. I've been recording snippets on my BlackBerry.

All humans realize they are loved when witnessing the dawn early morning is the triumph of good over evil. Absolved by light we decide to go on.

I'm a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. Millais, Edward Burne-Jones, and I realised recently that my music is Pre-Raphaelite in a certain way, in that it reinvents an older era and romanticises it, puts it in this gilded frame.