Boy George

I try to exist in a world where there is freedom of opinion, where you’re allowed to make jokes. I don’t want to live in some PC world where no-one’s allowed to say anything.

I started going to Madame Louise’s, the lesbian club where all the punk bands used to go – the Sex Pistols, the Clash. I remember seeing Billy Idol walk in there; he was gorgeous.

An actor is a guy who, if you ain’t talking about him, he ain’t listening.

Remember that I was out of the closet at the age of sixteen. My parents knew I was gay; I’d had to tell them.

People say things about me all the time and I get over it. I’ve had some appalling things told about me.

I knew style and content went hand in hand.

I suppose there is a lot of toughness in me.

I would rather have a cup of tea than sex.

Well there are those who think you can only succeed at someone else’s expense.

Part of me looks at the gay movement now and worries that we’re losing our individuality.

What’s really sad is that a lot of very talented people are being forced to do things that are very embarrassing and I don’t intend to be one of them.

Separation penetrates the disappearing person like a pigment and steeps him in gentle radiance.

I was unwelcome in the U.S. for four years.

I’d got very successful, everyone knew who I was, but I felt very empty.

I also tried to avoid doing obvious dance records.

The ultimate goal is to be more satisfied. I really don’t believe you get wiser because you get older. It’s a choice, perhaps not to take some things so seriously.

I just go in my back garden. It’s the only place where people don’t come and bother you.

Very few people can truly divorce themselves from what they feel emotionally and sexually.

I’m not responsible enough to have a dog – or a child.

I can do anything. In GQ, I appeared as a man.

A lot of people felt I was getting work because I was Boy George. My response at the time was that there’s a lot of DJs making records, they’re not all making good records, but they have the right to do that.

When Culture Club broke up, I hadn’t been going out a lot because we’d been working all the time, so I suddenly had this period of leisure. And it was just around the time that the whole acid house thing kicked off in London.

She’s probably in denial that she’s a great big ball of insecurity and I’m quite well aware that I am one.

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.

Beethoven had a great look. It was very much about the drama of appearance.

I think people could be a bit friendlier. The only real contact you have with people is when they’re annoyed if you’ve had a party – you know, it’s been a bit too noisy for them or something.

I’m always being inspired .

My mother and father were fantastic, very active. I find it difficult to say this, but I’m quite a loving person and I’ve always been loving to my friends. In the long run, that pays off. I’m very interested in other people, and if you are, they’re interested in you.

I’m being honest, I say what I think.