Quotes from Rufus Wainwright

Once illness strikes, you realize there's not a lot of time for you to do what you really need to do. And there's no time like the present.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I definitely consider 'Poses' - the whole album in fact - to be kind of a miracle. Like the last breath of that moment when decadence is healthy, 'Poses' encapsulates that feeling. It's a kind of song and a kind of album that I'll never be able to repeat.

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.

I'm very fit on tour. I try to eat well, try to sleep. But it's still rock n' roll.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

I would love to have a number one hit. The truth is if I don't get one, I'll be fine, but at the same time, the truth is that I'm dying for one, as well.

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

The thing I hate most is false modesty. The artists who are, like, 'Oh, you know, I'm really not that good. Oh, I can't believe I'm here.' I find it vaguely sinister, even.

I love being not cool.

For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.

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

When I'm in the classical world, I really treat it as exactly classical and I don't try and spruce it up or jazz it up or make it easier for the masses.

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

That will to love is very powerful. But it doesn't always win.

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.