Quotes from Rufus Wainwright

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

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

To me, songs come of their own volition - and with an open-ended philosophy.

I've written songs for Shirley Bassey, Marianne Faithfull, and Linda Thompson. I sort of focus on these wonderful, aging divas. But maybe that's because I think I'm Christina Aguilera.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

Places that have experienced great defeat experience a kind of rebirth, which I think America has to do - unless we want to get more decrepit. I don't think we have to destroy the place totally.

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

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

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.

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

Opera needs to be a total escape from real life. To relate to what we're going through today is fine and dandy, but it's really about being transported and completely swept away by a romantic notion.

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.

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.

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

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.