I'm fascinated by religion, but I'm not particularly religious.
Mika
Some people say I've got a five-octave range, which is ridiculous. That would mean I'd sing like Mariah Carey or that alien in 'The Fifth Element.' And I'm nothing like that blue alien. I've got a range of about 3 1/2 octaves.
I make mistakes. I say stupid things. I do idiotic things. And, quite frankly, I'm proud of them. Why not make mistakes?
If I really like the smell of something - a piece of tar or my goddaughter's plastic doll - I put a tiny piece in a bottle with a label. I keep them in a fridge in my bathroom.
In fact, no one has ever really wanted to go on a date with me.
I was brought up in many different cultures, moving around all the time, and I find my identity in my songs. I project the identity I want to have throughout the songs that I write.
I was always told I was ugly. I still think I am ugly. I know I've got an odd face and you can't tell me otherwise.
There's always apprehension whenever I launch anything, it seems. When I launch a tour, people are always, 'Oooh, is this gonna work?' And when I launch an album: 'Ooh, is this gonna work?' Or a new video. 'Really?' It's always like that - but I've always acted on the impulse that I have nothing to lose.
They say shyness is a form of egotism, and you are only shy because you care too much about what people think of you. And maybe its true, maybe I am just an egotist.
I'd never compare myself to Freddie Mercury because I look up to him far too much. As an artist, not necessarily as a person.
I've never, ever labeled myself.
I was a show-off as a kid. I was wearing bow ties and matching coloured trousers.
Anyone who tries to diss me in comparison to Queen, it just renders all their criticisms completely futile. That's quite pleasurable.
I think, 'How could anybody mock a good pop song?' It is timeless; it transcends barriers; it breaks down every single type of social barrier that you can possibly have. It can deal with the most difficult subjects, even if it abstracts the subject matter.
Strangely, I feel that I become increasingly reclusive in my normal life and more open and candid in my music.
In my older songs, I used to hide behind fictional characters to deflect attention away from myself.
I'm not a great dancer. I know I'm not. But I know that I can move. I can throw shapes, just not in the right order.
I certainly don't follow fashion. I think fashion, as far as the industry and the whole world that surrounds it, is quite vile, and I'm repelled by it.
Part of me sees myself as talented, and the other part sees me as strange. Ideas get stuck in your head and nothing changes them. Not even fame.
Mixed reactions? Sure, I get them all the time. I'm a Marmite artist.
Everything I do is very visual and very aural, so I don't read music, and I draw as much as I write out lyrics.
I write songs about fat girls and about men who run off to Mexico.
I have opinions on everything. I'm a stubborn old mule. The biggest problem is keeping my mouth shut.
I'm always calling my doctor because I'm constantly injuring myself while on the road, like tearing a ligament, blasting my ears or losing my voice. Plus, I'm a total hypochondriac.
Most of the people who write pop music were outsiders at some time in their life.
I'm dangerously generous.
In the past, it weighed on me because nobody in my family is gay. I had no role models so I had to find my own way.
Melody is disarming. It's anarchic!
When you come from nowhere, I am fully aware of the fact that people have to compare you to other artists to kind of place you.
I really want people to know me, to find out about me, and if they really like me, to stick with me.
Lady Gaga has a very unjaded intelligence. It's brilliant, 'cause it's anti-snob.
I'm not creating an enigma or leaving mystery, I'm just respecting myself enough as an artist to give myself room to grow and not to be devoured all in one go.
To me, being a classical snob in the highest possible way and being an indie snob is just as bad!
The music industry doesn't exist the way it used to. You'll never have another star like the stars of the '90s.
Hype is scary.
I never talk about anything to do with my sexuality.
It's very hard to find men's clothes that do what you want, especially when you go through them as quickly as I do. I need them to be flashy, but I never like to be overdressed. I need to make a statement, but I hate wearing too many clothes.
I was always told that I was too strange or that I was too cheesy by different groups of people, like the record companies said I was way too weird and the indie people wouldn't even let me in their band.
As a teenager, in my songbook, I used to script what my lighting would be like. I used to dance in my roo;, it was like putting myself in a trance, and making myself feel good about things, almost like a private ceremony of begging people to like you.
I'm a big illustration and comic book fan. In my eyes, comic books and illustration are the same kind of art forms.
I can't just listen to music walking down the street unless I have a reason to. I can't just listen to music as a piece of junk in the background. It drives me insane.
My relationship with my mother is not cute.
The stage is my territory, my boxing ring. That's where I'm free.
The best way to make the most serious point in the world is to be as unserious as possible.
Never had any idols, ever. I never had any posters, nothing.
We all have to be dishes on a plate eventually, with the way we are marketed, but I have no intention of being a cheap Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet.
My life isn't tabloid-friendly.
I'm not necessarily that big of a clubbing junkie, but I really like dance music as a genre.
Identity for me is something that has to be played with and explored, and not become complacent about or uninterested in.
My first record was about childhood. There were a lot of nursery rhyme and fairytale references; it was all about being naive.
