Rufus Wainwright famous quotes

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

#Wonderful #Moments #Humour

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

#Running #Thinking #People

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

#Writing #Creating #Want

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Believe #Cutting #Fog

I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Fabulous #Mundane

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Morning #Light #Evil

I'd be hanging out in my bathrobe all day, stinky, just writing, and my mom allowed me to do this-as long as I was writing songs. She said, 'As long as you're seriously working on music, I'll support you. Don't get a job, because if you work, it will crush you.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Crush #Mom #Song

Madonna created a monster that sucks up souls.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Soul #Monsters

I was reared on folk music.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Folks #Folk Music

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

#Sleep #Light #Sensitive

The mind has so many pictures Why can't I sleep with my eyes open? The mind has so many memories Can you remember what it looks like when I cry? I'm trying, trying to tell you All that I can in a sweet and velvet tongue But no words ever could sell you Sell you on me after all that I have done.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Sweet #Memories #Sleep

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

#Age #Rewards #Needs

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

#Aunt #My Boyfriend #Care

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Religious #New York #Church

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

#Cutting #People #Berlin

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

#House #Opera #Royal

Premiering a new opera is probably one of the hardest things in the world to do, and opening nights of any opera are always pretty stressful.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Night #World #Opera

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

#Rap #Thinking #Hands

The song is about knowing the end result of every situation you're in, and being able to play it out in your mind and see it before it happens. It's about addiction, really, about knowing how it's all going to end up. In that sense, you're watching a movie of yourself all the time - and then you want out of that movie.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Song #Play #Knowing

One day you will come to Montauk and see your dad playing the piano And see your other dad wearing glasses Hope that you will want to stay for a while Don't worry I know you'll have to go
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Dad #Piano #Glasses

But I don't even think you hear me at all Under your medieval ceiling behind your biblical wall
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Wall #Biblical #Thinking

I believe in freedom Freedom's apparently all I need But who's ever been free in this world? Who has never had to bleed in this world?
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Believe #Needs #World

And I am left behind Corrupted crushed and blind All for a dream That in truth was never really mine.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Dream #Blind #Left Behind

Guess the world needs both sun And the moon too Sad with what I have except for you.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Moon #World #Sun

These are just the rules and regulations Of the birds, and the bees The earth, and the trees, Not to mention the gods, not to mention the gods.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Tree #Bird #Regulation

I really need to know I may just never see you again, or might as well You took advantage of a world that loved you well I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down I'm so tired of you, America.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Tired #America #Needs

Putting all of my time In learning to care And a bucket of rhymes I threw up somewhere Want a locket of who Made me lose my perfunctory view Of all that is around And of all that I do.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Views #Care #Want

I really do fear that I'm dying I really do fear that I'm dead I saw it in your eyes what I'm looking for I saw it in your eyes what will make me live.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Eye #Dying #Saws

Cigarettes and chocolate milk These are just a couple of my cravings Everything it seems I like's a little bit stronger A little bit thicker A little bit harmful for me.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Couple #Chocolate #Stronger

And you will believe in love And all that it's supposed to be But just until the fish start to smell And you're struck down by a hammer.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Believe #Smell #Hammers

I don't want to hold you and feel so helpless I don't want to smell you and lose my senses And smile in slow motion With eyes in love.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Eye #Smell #Slow Motion

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Focus #Needs #Opera

Life is a game and true love is a trophy.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Life #True Love #Love Is

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

#Father #Player #Guitar

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

#Cutting #Teeth #Closets

I am regarded as a usurper, as an imposter and dilettante, because I do technically come from the wrong side of the tracks in musical terms.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Track #Musical #Usurpers

For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Reading #Iphone #Faust

As an artist, you put so much into what you do and it can all be torn down in a nanosecond.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Artist #Torn

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

#Years #Cleaning #Cleaning Up

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

#Genius #Feels

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

#Being Pretty #Uncool

Let the little fairy in you fly!
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Littles #Fairy

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

#Pain #Enlightenment #Twenties

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Beauty #Swans #People

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

#Reality #World #Unreal

I am undefinable. I don't fit into any particular category.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Fit #Categories #Particular

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

#Peace #War #Brain

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

#Boys #Homosexuality #Mummy

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Song #Missing #Today

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

#Powerful #Believe #Love Is

I have a good face for what I do.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Faces

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

#Ambition #Gaga

I have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds, but I can't seem to get to grips with money.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Pounds

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Gold #Bricks #Existence

I have never cooked a meal in my life and always end up paying for dozens of people to eat with me.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#People #Dozen #Meals

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

#Habit #Youtube #Checking Out

I like to try new things.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Trying

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Thinking #Age #Young

I very much faced my mother's death with hard, arduous and time-consuming labor. The more I would do, the less I would feel.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Mother #Feels #Labor

Yes, I'm a homosexual and I like to shock people with glamour.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#People #Glamour #Shock

Mowing your lawn is against nature.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Mowing #Lawns

Faith is a bluebird you see from afar, it's for real and as sure as the first evening star. You can't touch it or buy it or wrap it up tight, but it's there all the same, making things turn out right.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Stars #Real #Afar

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Thinking #Opera #Curious

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

#Approach

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!
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Baby #Crazy #Destiny

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Mother #Daughter #Stars

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

#Mom #Gay #Gun

I am ridiculously high-maintenance.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Maintenance #High Maintenance

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Challenges #Trying #Pops

Somebody curse the light And take me far away from myself
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Light #Far Away #Curse

My cheeks explode when I smile. Thats why I have to look so nonplussed.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Looks #I Smile

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!
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Believe #Winning #Evil

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

#Facts

New York is not the centre for American culture and art that it once was because of the forces of conservatism. Giuliani, capitalism - and then there was 9/11. I really believe that if I leave, it will suffer! Maybe that's why I love it here, because I feel wanted.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Art #New York #Believe

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Real #Thinking #Piano

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Taken #Thinking #Years

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Albums #Way #Next

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Mother #Voice #Piano

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Stars #Parent #Serious

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Rip #Father #Cutting

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Demise #Way #Plot

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Kabbalah #Hitting #Fairy Tale

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Beautiful #Thinking #Lines

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Way #Eras #Fans

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Song #Writing #Breathing

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Artist #Degrees #Answers

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

#Video #Habit #Walks

Why be in music, why write songs, if you can't use them to explore life or an idealized vision of life?
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Song #Writing #Vision

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

#Knights #Shining #Parks

Once you've fallen from classical virtue, won't have a soul for to wake up and hold you.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Philosophy #Soul #Wake Up

All these poses of classical torture ruined my mind like a snake in the orchard. I did go from wanting to be someone, now I'm drunk and wearing flip-flops on Fifth Avenue.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Art #Media #Snakes

I was in the forest jumping around daffodils while everyone was high on heroin.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Jumping #Boots #Forests

Life is the longest death in California,
-- Rufus Wainwright

#California #Life Is

I am under no illusion that I will ever be the greatest opera composer in the world, with Wagner and Verdi and Strauss before me. I think my work could fit very nicely into musicals, though.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Thinking #World #Opera

I don’t really have a relationship with the guitar; it’s like my slutty lover, whereas I’m married to the piano
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Piano #Guitar #Lovers

I will take my coffee black / never snack / hang with the wolves who are sheepish.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Coffee #Snacks #Black

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.
-- Rufus Wainwright

#Thinking #Decision #Skins