Quotes from Christine and the Queens

I have an obsession with haters: the great mess of the Internet expressing itself. I love to type my name on Twitter and read everything. It's always enlightening to see what they hate about you: I'm not pretty enough to be on stage, or my music doesn't make any sense. It feels good to read that, like I'm heading in the right direction!

I remember writing '5 Dollars' out of intense listening sessions of Bruce Springsteen. I don't know if it's obvious, but I was obsessed with how limpid Bruce Springsteen's melodies are: It's such a great way to do storytelling and to still be melodic and catchy.

That's part of what made me interested in theater as a kid. It made it acceptable to be a man for an hour onstage.

I remember growing up and feeling all the time not pretty enough, too rude, too loud, taking too much space because precisely I wanted to maybe be bossy and loud and unapologetic and not really smooth all the time, and those were not really qualities that were valued for me.

I remember studying so hard for so long and saying to my parents, 'I will be a teacher.' And they were looking at me like, 'Girl... you just want to be on stage. Stop pretending.' So when I chose to do music, they were relieved. My parents were more intelligent and lucid than I was.

Sometimes, in my adult life, I have memories of when I was young and really scared of being too close to people.

I'm just drawn to hands.

For some people, it's impossible to escape binaries.

I think I used Christine, who is my stage character, as an excuse to finally be myself, as if I needed to say, 'Oh this character is going to be the woman I wanted to be.'

I love trying to match a really hard expectation.