I've had people tell me that I should just be sad and not joke around on Twitter, but they don't understand that joking and being deeply sad are very close to each other. I'll have a horrible memory that I find hysterical one day, and the next day I'll cry about it.

Perfume Genius

When I watch alien movies, I want to be the alien. I don't want to be the people that make first contact or anything; I just want to be that creature.

Perfume Genius

Movies Watch Want

When something is heartwarming and triumphant, and not corny or preachy, it's such a powerful thing.

Perfume Genius

War Power Art

I realise there are situations where I camp it up, make myself into a sort of novelty character to ease things along. Like, if I ever feel uncomfortable in a situation, I can just make myself into this funny Will-and-Grace-guest-star type of person, and maybe people will not pay attention to the deeper things going on.

Perfume Genius

Funny Will Where

The thing is everything is good at the Cheesecake Factory. Everything's good. It's science-based. It's a formula; there's math. It's all good!

Perfume Genius

Science Good Very

When I started to allow myself to not be locked into wearing men's clothes, things kind of opened up. It feels very kind to drape yourself in something that feels special.

Perfume Genius

Men Art Yourself

I don't feel like I make sense in the world. I don't feel like I look right. I don't feel like I act right or do right. It's very frustrating to me that I just walk around with this all the time.

Perfume Genius

Time World Wit

I'm just doing what I want. I'm not thinking, like, 'Today I'm going to dress like a woman.' I'm not even thinking about that. I'm just thinking, 'I want to wear this today; I want to be this today.'

Perfume Genius

Woman Wear Want

It took me a long time to not think of the universe as a judgmental debit-credit system. I haven't completely shaken it, but I no longer think that I am overdrawn with God. Grace is not something you earn; its always there. I find this idea a lot more fun.

Perfume Genius

Time Men God

I'm really into gay stuff getting funded: having it be on TV and having a show.

Perfume Genius

UN TV Tin

If I drink coffee, I have to turn the lights off and lay down. I can't handle it.

Perfume Genius

Turn T Own

Taking care of myself is not instinctual for me. It feels very weird.

Perfume Genius

Car Weird Very

My mom is not religious, but she's a very spiritual, magical kind of lady. One time, when I was younger, my mom said she was a witch and that my grandmother was also a witch. It was late at night, and she was really sleepy, but I took it very seriously because I always wanted to go to Hogwarts.

Perfume Genius

War Time Mom

I get in my own way a lot. I feel a lot more confident than I... am.

Perfume Genius

Way Than T

I think people have a hard time dealing with a bunch of things at once. They can't have something be disturbing and funny at the same time. They can't have that kind of combination. Which is weird to me because I feel complicated about most things.

Perfume Genius

Time Funny Wit

I like Yoda. I like the Ewoks.

Perfume Genius

Yoda T OK

I play a lot of role-playing games on the computer. And I always have.

Perfume Genius

Yin Ways Way

I like when I tweet about Tony Hawk. A lot of times, people think it's true; like, I've tweeted about having lunch with him a lot, and people are like, 'Oh, how was he?' or, like, 'Do you have a pic?' I don't know how to explain it. He's right at the level where people could almost believe it, but it's also a really weird pairing.

Perfume Genius

Time You Wit

I feel like I've figured out the way that I can talk about things that are important to me and have my music and the way of performance be healing and be helpful.

Perfume Genius

Music Way Us

I started writing songs later in life because I just couldn't commit to it before.

Perfume Genius

Life Art Writing

It used to be enough for me to get on stage and sing. I kind of crave the performance part now. I write knowing it's going to happen, which I didn't do before.

Perfume Genius

Art Age Write

I'm pretty sure I would have managed to over-share no matter what time period I was born in. It's a family thing, too.

Perfume Genius

I think if you know one direction, then you can feel the other one. I don't think you can be truly, insanely joyous if you haven't ever felt the flip side of it.

Perfume Genius

There was one time I flagged every 'Brokeback Mountain' review on Netflix that was negative. I was, like, 'not helpful,' and I spent, like, an hour doing it, and I wrote a really serious review about it. It's hard for me not to get really sensitive. I don't brush things off like that very easily.

Perfume Genius

Music helped me, growing up: it very much felt like a companion and made me less lonely.

Perfume Genius

For a while, I thought I would maybe be a writer. But with music, I was such a nerd; I was really obsessive about it. The problem was I couldn't really sing. I think one day I sang from a different part of my body, from my gut for the first time, and I was like, 'Oh! That's how you're supposed to do it.'

Perfume Genius

My favorite movie is 'Dogfight' with River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. The ending is kind of bittersweet but so real and moving and complicated.

Perfume Genius

I've had people send messages that said, 'I'm sorry how I treated you in high school.' It was just through kindness. I still think of the world the same way I did growing up. When I got hurt, I decided that this is how people are. But the world is changing, and even those people have changed. And I have. I need to let go, too.

Perfume Genius

I was really scared of the devil growing up: I was convinced I was going to be possessed.

Perfume Genius

I don't ever necessarily feel masculine or feminine. I just feel... I don't know. Like, when I'm wearing women's clothes, it's not like I'm dressing like a lady, a woman; it's just like I'm doing whatever I want.

Perfume Genius

I think the best mood for writing is a heavy feeling that's a little bit removed from you. Sometimes I feel very self-indulgent and bratty and ungrateful, and no good music comes out of that. But sometimes I can be really sad or have an excess of feeling yet somehow be able to see the big picture more.

Perfume Genius

I was scared of the devil starting around age nine. Before that, I was gathering every family member in the living room, slipping a shirt over my robe so the bottom hung like a skirt and performing Gloria Estefan songs with feverish intensity.

Perfume Genius

Blushes are fun. I like to do circles - like a Caravaggio painting almost, or Victorian looking.

Perfume Genius

I sort of trust myself as a musician to experiment more and to know when things are more effective when they're spare and when a song can hold up to a lot of different instrumentations. So I'm more willing to go for it.

Perfume Genius

There's a book called 'You're Not a Stranger Here' by Adam Haslett - short stories, a lot of them are about mental illness and gay people - that classic combination. But they're really well-written, really powerful. It's pretty good.

Perfume Genius

I saw 'Predators.' That was pretty good, actually.

Perfume Genius

iTunes is my favorite record store.

Perfume Genius

I think people are surprised that I'm not - I think people come up to talk to me, and they think I'm going to be really morose. And I am, but I do that by myself - no one wants to see that. It's not really a phoniness; I just kind of keep it to myself. So I think people are surprised when they come up to talk to me and I hug them.

Perfume Genius

I've had people tell me that I should just be sad and not joke around on Twitter, but they don't understand that joking and being deeply sad are very close to each other. I'll have a horrible memory that I find hysterical one day, and the next day I'll cry about it.

Perfume Genius

One of the things that 'Too Bright' refers to is how there's a lot of times where I see things that I could change that could make me more contented, but I usually just don't make those changes because they seem new and scary. I just stay where I'm at, even if I'm miserable, because I'm familiar with it.

Perfume Genius

I don't know if I could write a pop song without at least a little touch of bite in it, and it's usually not a bite that most people would want to sing.

Perfume Genius

I like to have fun! And everything that's good for you is not fun, and that bores me.

Perfume Genius

I am fierce, yes, but I'm serious about music.

Perfume Genius

I have a strange, not very traditional voice - I'm not Adele.

Perfume Genius

If I'm not writing, I can download a newer album everybody's making a fuss about. But when I'm writing, I keep myself in my own zone - I worry about listening to new music that'll inform me too much. I'm the kind of person who goes to another country and starts speaking in an accent after three days.

Perfume Genius

I really never want to try to be cool.

Perfume Genius

I like Feist's music because it's really smart, but it's really free and soulful at the same time. Sometimes you only get one or the other.

Perfume Genius

I don't think I wrote my first song until I was 25. And then everything I wrote ended up becoming my first album. I put my music online, and from that, things just happened.

Perfume Genius

I do not work out regularly, but I do dance so much and jump around so much on stage, and I do it every day, so I feel like that's my exercise.

Perfume Genius

For me, piano is just where I started; I know where to go with it.

Perfume Genius

My mom is always asking why can't I make something nice? Because I'll make paintings, say, and they're just really bloody and angsty. So I wrote 'Dark Parts' because I wanted to write something nice for her.

Perfume Genius