I left school at 17 and was a star by the time I was 18 – in certain parts of the world anyway.

With pop stars or film stars, we become the object of people’s self-definition, as well as the object of sexual definition.

I want to make a pop album – something more upbeat than my stuff was in the ’90s.

I’ve never done anything so political before. I’ve spent years shouting my mouth off about serious issues over dinner tables but never really had the confidence to express my views in a song.

You’ll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.

Your political system is actually too democratic. The fact that Americans vote on every bill and proposition can prolong bigotry indefinitely, especially where it is aimed at minority groups.

Everything was going my way. I was happily marching into the history books. Then it all just fell apart.

I define my sexuality in terms of the people that I love.

There’s no comfort in the truth, pain is all you’ll find.

Of course, I want to sell this record – there’s no point making it otherwise.

I spent years growing up being told what my sexuality was.

I left school at 17 and was a star by the time I was 18 – in certain parts of the world anyway.

Celebrity and secrets don’t go together. The bastards will get you in the end.

I think the media is a real demon.

I would advise any gay person that being out in the real sense can never happen too soon.

The whole business is built on ego, vanity, self-satisfaction, and it’s total crap to pretend it’s not.

I’m not anti-American. I’ve lived with Kenny, a Texan, for six years.

It’s important to me that I should be free to express myself.

It’s absolutely essential that we have the same safeguards that straight couples do. But I want more than a 50 percent chance of success. I don’t want to emulate that.

I think for most of us, our biggest frailties are sexual.

My American gay audience have continued to dance and sing to the music I make in a way that straight Americans haven’t. I am grateful to them for that.