I really like women who are able to be classy and poised and really well put together when the time is right, but also be complete clowns.
Jinkx Monsoon
We should not be assuming anything for anyone else's gender, because gender is defined by the individual.
The more you embrace the weird crazy things about you, the more you find your tribe.
I hope people realize that drag queens and queer people, we're not just archetypes and stereotypes. We're human beings with a lot to share. And a drag queen doesn't have to just be a clown, she can also be like a cooking TV personality or like a DJ, or a talk-show host. We should be able to infiltrate TV everywhere.
I like to write my shows coming up with the stupidest things I can think of then finding a way I can incorporate a running theme or an underlying message that takes a stupid idea and gives it something worth watching.
There's an old guard of drag, like the queens who got as big as they could possibly get before there was a TV show dedicated to drag queens.
In the gay community there are not very many Jewish drag queens. I've always found that funny because there are a lot of Jewish gay people out there, so why aren't there more Jewish drag queens?
Growing up as a gay boy during the holidays, there's the things you want to ask for, and then the things you ask for because you're afraid of asking for what you really want.
I love puns and plays on words, which is why I love RuPaul so much.
It's not enough to just be a good singer. You have to know where your roots come from. If you sing jazz, you should know all about jazz. You should look into, as much as you possibly can, the history of it, so that you're and educated and well-informed performer.
I used to hate that my lips are gigantic, and now I have huge red clown lips, and I love it.
When I found the 'Human Nature' music video as a teenager - I've been a drag queen since 15 - I just loved that music video so much because it's such a celebration of her femininity and her sexuality. I thought it was so powerful.
I don't think I knew Ru was a drag queen when I would see her in 'The Brady Bunch Movie.'
If I'm in drag, I'm playing Jinkx in some way.
My first drag role was the character Widow Simone in the ballet 'La Fille Mal Gardee.' She's a crazy social climbing woman trying to marry off her daughter to the wealthy town idiot. And in the middle of the show, she gets to perform a clog dance. I loved it.
When you are living your truth, you will meet people who love you for that truth.
I play a lot of video games, cook meals for my best friends and chosen family in Seattle, and find time to visit my family in Portland, Oregon.
Everyone should be able to express themselves in the way that best suits them - life is too short to spend it unhappy.
I started drag in Portland, Oregon, but I don't feel that I came to life as a drag queen until I started working in Seattle. That's what really lit the rocket fuel in my career.
I've always been into the music of the 1920s and 1930s.
Drag is very much an art form, and all art goes through ebbs and flows and trends.
We have such an amazing drag community, and I don't think people fully realize it about Seattle.
If one drag queen penetrates the mainstream and opens up a new avenue for us to take with our careers, that means all of us can potentially do that.
When I'm doing an exaggerated character, I hope it's clear I don't think this is how women do, or should, act. There's aspects of Looney Tunes in drag. But there's something poignant about a man dressed as a woman, talking about gender. It can make you realize how similar the genders really are.
I started drag at 15 years old.
Gwyneth Paltrow - she always looks like she's about to cry.
I watched 'Drag Race Thailand' without any subtitles or voiceovers or anything; I don't speak Thai but I do speak drag, so I felt like I understood exactly what was going on, even though I couldn't speak Thai. I didn't understand anything they were saying but I knew exactly what was happening.
No matter who you are in your day-to-day life, and no matter what you look like, and whatever insecurities you're dealing with, you can fully transform yourself. It's as easy as deciding to transform yourself.
I went to 'The Nutcracker' every year with my grandma and aunt. Then, in my early teen years, I thought I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I went real gung-ho in that direction, and I started performing in 'The Nutcracker.'
I very much treat my stage persona of Jinkx as a character I've created. Some drag artists do a look-based glamour act, and when they talk they're mostly just being themselves. In my case it's not Jinkx the drag queen, it's Jerrick Hoffer as Jinkx Monsoon.
I want people to see that you don't have to be catty and mean to be a superstar.
Australian audiences seem ready for anything you throw at them.
I feel that drag queens impersonate very strong, independent women who inspired us throughout our lives.
Almost all the Disney villain witches are gay icons.
You don't know that you're not a solo artist or standup comedian or drag cabaret artist until you try it.
I prefer to be gender fluid or non-gendered and I dress in drag almost every day of my life even if I'm not in my full Jinkx Monsoon persona - I'm the kind of person who does not dress like my assigned gender and I wear makeup every day and sometimes wear wigs as a boy.
I've had some really great experiences in London and the fans are really loyal and always happy to have us.
I was always ready to submit my life to my career - but I don't think anything could have truly prepared me for the reality of that.
Ever since I was a kid I just thought that women had the better outfits, women had the better hair, women got to wear makeup. I just got jealous of what women got to do onstage. You dress up a man and ultimately it's just a different variation on the same kind of suit. There's a whole wide world of what women wear onstage.
If you have to mask the things you're insecure about, go ahead. Wear four pairs of pantyhose, pad your hips, boost your boobs - whatever it takes to walk out of the house feeling like you own the world. Because there's no reason to waste your life hating something you can change.
We like to take pop songs that have really cool, complex melodies or lyrics and strip away all that fluff and electronic noise, and put them back as if they were written for a singer and a piano.
I think my favourite thing about doing conventions is the parents taking their kids to see their favourite drag idols, because open-minded, progressive parents are making such a change in the world right now. The more open-minded these kids are being raised, the more hope I have for the future.
My long-term goal is to play a drag role or a female role in a Broadway production.
I am a transgender identified person.
First, it was a big deal for girls to dress more like guys. Then it was a big deal for straight men to be metereosexuals and care about their appearance in the way that a gay man would. Now we have to take it a step further - men should be able to not wear men's clothes if they don't want to.
Christmas used to be my favorite time of year. But as an adult, it's a time of year where it's like, do I have to go through this again?
It's hard to have a fruitful romantic life when I'm never in one place for long.
I am only really attracted to people who are very open-minded and embrace and celebrate people who live outside the gender norm.
What I love that has happened for years now with 'Drag Race' is the queens can go on to have any kind of career.
It was like I have always had big dreams for my drag aspirations, and I talked myself into doing 'Drag Race.' I'm like, take a chance.
