When in doubt, freak 'em out.
Sharon Needles
It has always been my aim to live everyday like Halloween by celebrating individuality and creative freedom within a world of horror.
Sometimes I'm not even really quite sure why I do what I do - do I do it because I like to show that I'm an educated person to exploit these certain things artistically and, in my opinion, in a very smart way - or am I just a punk rock brat that likes pushing people's buttons and relishing in the negative reaction? I can't tell.
Discrimination must always be drawn out, like venom from the wound.
Two people live within me. One's a very savvy businessperson; the other's a party girl.
My mom let me play in her clothes, wear makeup, and I had high heels from a thrift store. My mom tells me that the only reason she let me dress in her clothes is because she couldn't afford any toys, and it seemed entertaining enough and kept her from having to buy me anything, 'cause everything I wanted was in her makeup box or wardrobe.
I like money but I love performance art and it goes hand in hand. I'm not the 'Titanic,' I'm 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' I'm not a blockbuster, I'm a cult classic. I think my strong but cult-like fanbase expects me to challenge norms.
Some people say, 'Oh you're a weird queen. You're a punk queen.' All queens are weird! I don't care if you're in a sickening gown or dressed as an octopus. You are treating every day as if it were Halloween. You are donning a character and a persona that isn't real.
Everyone loves puppets.
My concept is drag queens are not a reflection of society, they are a fun house reflection of society where we bend, and twist and manipulate the anxieties we all feel.
I'm kind of against car culture - I've always been a cyclist.
Gay people in general, I think, like telling secrets because we have to hide a huge secret for the first half of our lives. Why would we want to keep any more?
I remember when I wore UFO raver jeans in the 90s. Or my JNCOs! I miss my JNCOs.
I love what news has become. It's no longer based on facts, it's based on entertainment.
Not to be rude to my sisters, but I don't listen to drag music. I listen to everything from punk to Italo disco to Appalachian country music, but I don't know what their records sound like. I hardly listen to my own records. I'm like Cher!
PG-13' is kind of a scattered, almost movie soundtrack album, with elements of punk and metal and electronica.
I'm the sort of person who wants to wear a wedding dress to a wedding.
I did drag out of necessity. I had to do it... I had to create this other character because - because she's cheaper than therapy.
On 'PG-13,' the way I wrote that is that I would get my tracks ahead of time and then I would write for them, and I wrote fairly quickly.
When your hobby becomes a full-time job that pays you and the people around you, it's not fun anymore.
If anyone boos you offstage, that is simply applause from ghosts.
Politics remind me a lot of 'RuPaul's Drag Race.' It's real but it isn't.
In the entertainment industry women are often judged. They judge bigger women, they judge black women, and older women too. We just don't do that in drag. Drag is open to everyone, regardless of gender, body shape or age.
I was such a bizarre conundrum of everything that makes you worry about a child. I was a bad student. I got picked on a lot. I loved horror movies.
The most powerful woman I know is my mother, and she doesn't wear any make up at all.
I've always toyed around with creating over-the-top lady characters in my head.
I love Halloween. I mean, yes, I consider every day to be Halloween, but it's a very special day for me.
Love is a universal thing that everyone understands. Love, like death, is the only thing that binds humanity.
I was raised on GG Allen, Divine, Elvira and Marilyn Manson. I was always more interested in those button pushing, transgressive artists and they made a lot of good money doing it.
I think the reason people are propping up drag queens is because it's popular with the fans that identify with them, so we're great for marketing. We're not allowed to be the Christmas tree, we're just allowed to be the decorations, and I still think we're looked at as clowns by a majority of the society.
It's a pleasure to join the ranks of Debbie Rochon, Linnea Quigley, and Heather Langenkamp as one of America's most recognizable Scream Queens!
I found my first picture of Amanda Lepore online in fashion magazines. It was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen in my life. I thought nothing could trump the perfection of that photograph.
In the past, when I lacked designer duds, I simply relied on my hot glue gun.
I was really into the bimbo archetype that filled late 80s-early 90s TV when I was growing up. You know, women circling the want ads with nail polish, Rhonda Shear from 'U.S.A. Up All Night,' Peggy Bundy.
I never hate my bullies from high school. I actually kind of appreciate them. If it wasn't for that boot camp training of how the world treats gay people and especially drag queens, I don't know if I would have survived as well as I have.
Well I grew up in a small town in Iowa and there weren't a lot of imaginative and fun outlets for kids of my caliber, so pretty much my mom's closet and any large pieces of fabric in the Halloween box were my favorite toys.
It seems like no one has friends in New York, they just have collaborators or co-workers.
Drag queens don't work well outside. We're designed for spotlights, not sunlight.
Sharon Needles was based on two things: That she was beautiful and that she was stupid.
Monster Mash' is one of those great, throwback Halloween songs.
Beneath the 30 pounds of makeup and corsets and gowns are real beating hearts of real people and they usually come from a place of pain.
I find doppelgangers terrifying... can you imagine two of me?! Now that's scary!
I went into 'RuPaul's Drag Race' saying, 'I'll never cry.' Because they make fun of every queen that cries on the show. And I did cry, and I did scream, and I did have doubt, and I did have great, victorious moments.
I love celebrities, and I love the concept of fame, but it took me getting fame to realize that it doesn't exist, which was kind of a bummer. Fame is great if you're not famous, because it seems like this elusive impossible dream world. And it's not. It's a fancy word that managers and producers make up so they can keep hawking you for more money.
Most American adults know what a drag queen is, but as they're portrayed in films like 'Dressed to Kill' and 'Silence of the Lambs.'
The thing about fame is, you want it your whole life, but no matter how bright you are, no one ever asks themselves why they want fame. You never really know what it is until you have it. You can never tangibly feel your own fame.
Once you are in full Sharon Needles mode, you don't feel fear, you don't feel physical pain, and you also don't feel your own moral filter any longer.
A drag queen on time is not a drag queen.
I can't speak for all queens, but Sharon Needles is definitely a different entity from me as Aaron Coady.
I like work that pushes the barrier of bad taste.
