Boy George
Adele is selling millions of records, and everybody tries to sing like Adele.
Bands like Culture Club and artists like me, you tend to concentrate on the live arena because that's where you can be your most authentic. That's where you have the most power.
I don't listen to the radio, so I don't really know what's going on in current pop culture. I know about the obvious things, like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran and Adele, because I hear them. They're everywhere.
I can be quite noisy and robust in the morning.
For someone like me, who has grown up with Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, it's hard not to invest a lot of myself in what I do.
I've sold a lot of records. I've sold, like, 150 million records, and I don't think I've had that many good reviews. It's one of those things that when you're really successful, critics hate you just because you're successful.
Compliments are very un-British, but when someone pays you one, you should take it.
I've got so much to be happy about.
Sometimes, having a reputation can be the best thing because people expect you to be really difficult, perhaps a bit caustic, and hard work - and I'm none of those things.
There are lots of things about me that have changed. Some things are a process; some things take time.
My appetite for self-destruction and misery is greatly diminished. I'm not interested in being unhappy.
I think that's the fascinating thing about the '70s is that it turns out it was quite a dark decade. But, like, who knew?
To me, I think of the '70s as being this glorious decade where I discovered who I was and discovered all these amazing things... punk rock, electro music, fashion, all of that.
On the street, on the train - I pull my hat down, and nobody knows it's me. I always wanted the kind of fame that came with an off button.
I was always good at music.
I was never a wallflower - I put my head on the style chopping block.
At 16, I walked around knowing I'd get chased and attacked for dressing a certain way - I felt I had an undeniable right to be who I wanted to be. My father said to hit them back, but I was never much good at that. So I developed a big mouth instead of a quick right hook.
When I got sober, I really felt like there was something that was missing from my life, Buddhism is something that I practice.
I forgive very easily, and I suppose, in the same way, I expect to be forgiven very easily as well. I grew up with that.
My dad was very explosive, God rest his soul. He could fly off the handle like no one I've ever known, and I have definitely got that in my personality: that ability to sort of smash the house up and then say, 'Put the kettle on,' to have that kind of attitude of, 'Well, I'm OK now, so everybody else has got to be OK.'
I love American positivity.
You're in a band with someone, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to agree with everything they think or do.
I used to tell my mum to leave my dad when I was, like, nine. I loved my father, don't get me wrong. I really loved him, but he wasn't a good dad, and he wasn't a good husband.
My dad was quite an extreme man.
I knew that I was different when I was six years old, but it wasn't until I got to about 10 or 11 that I realised I was a gay man.
People that plan interviews are really boring. I just say what I want when it comes into my head.
People in Scunthorpe don't care what I say. And I'm not camp, either. I'm a geezer. I'm not a raving queer, I've got a bit of character. I just ignore people who shout at me in the street. I just stick my head in the air; I'm not interested.
I can't even read music. All I know is whether I think it sounds good and if I like what I'm doing.
In the early part of the '70s, we had glam rock, but we also had reggae and ska happening at the same time. I just took all those influences I had as a kid and threw them together, and somehow it works.
America has always been my biggest audience, so I'm putting a lot of faith in America.
I DJ'd and sang at Miami Basel 2013.
You have social networking, and you can do things efficiently without the might of a big label.
School is not a great place to have feminine features or a big nose, or to wear glasses or the wrong shoes.
School is a scary place for kids. So I didn't like it, and I didn't want to be there. And it was a great day for me when they threw me out.
Even from the age of about 6 years old, I was kind of made to feel different by other kids - you know, I was a quite pretty kid, and I got called 'girl' a lot, and 'woman' and all of that. And school is really not a place to be different.
I never really tell lies, and sometimes it has worked against me.
When I was in prison, a lot of my friends blew me away. But Stephen Fry wrote to me. It was very humbling.
I always say I'm Catholic in my complications and Buddhist in my aspirations.
There's always going to be something said that hurts you.
I would rather have a cup of tea than sex.
I'm of the opinion that as a DJ you must always play what you love and ignore what's 'trendy' because true passion always eclipses what's fashionable. Quality is always fashionable.
Sometimes you surprise yourself with what you can handle, and if you come out the other end with some wisdom, then it's not such a bad thing.
There's no better time than now to be who you are.
I'm being honest, I say what I think.
In a way, the most political thing you can do is be yourself.
A lot of what I've been learning in the last two years is due to therapy - about my sexuality, why things go wrong, why relationships haven't worked. It isn't anything to do with anybody else; it's to do with me.
In a way, we're going backwards. In the early '80s, it was like all these huge strides, and everything was more free and easy. I think we're going back. I don't know if it's the economics or what, but things are getting more right-wing, definitely.
I've never been a bad person and always had quite good morals. There's always been a side of me that's been quite proper, but it's got distracted here and there. Now I'm the person I should be.
If you listen to the radio, and something beats you into surrender, like 'REO Speedwagon', and you really hate them, there's 'You Can Go Your Own Way' in your ear all day, and that's what makes a good song.