Top 176 Quotes & Sayings by Rufus Wainwright

I think my mother, more than anyone, knew the importance of inspiration. If it was occurring, you had to use it.

I may not lead the most dramatic life, but in my brain it's 'War and Peace' everyday.

I've developed into quite a swan. I'm one of those people that will probably look better and better as I get older until I drop dead of beauty.

I have managed to eke out a good and substantial existence. I'm not shoveling gold bricks or anything, but I do very, very well.

I've always gravitated towards opera, and the Royal Opera House is quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth.

There's no life without humour. It can make the wonderful moments of life truly glorious, and it can make tragic moments bearable.

When it came to using elements of your personal life in your work, my mother was the master, or the mistress. There were three or four songs she wrote about my father - songs about failed love.

I want to carve out a serious period of time to focus on the next opera without any distractions. And to do that you need money.

The artist who gave me the most inspiration and direction, especially as a singer - and I absolutely consider myself a singer, 100 percent - is Nina Simone. She's my ultimate pianist-singer-type person.

I do not consider myself a guitar player. My father is a guitar player - I'm not.

I've had my ups and downs, and I definitely have a sense - in America, especially - that once you've made your mark and gotten your Rolling Stone piece and your Grammy nomination, that they're on to the next piece of meat, and they don't necessarily like to follow the twists and turns of an artistic career.

I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.

My dad and I have always been somewhat competitive.

I like to sing to Verdi, I like singing to Sibelius, and Mahler maybe.

That will to love is very powerful. But it doesn't always win.

I still believe that love is the most powerful force in the world, even though I am yet to experience it fully.

I think I've done a pretty fantastic job, but of course I want to sell millions of records.

In the music business, to survive for so long, you have to be able to cut off from your emotions sometimes. And being a father, you're faced with that situation. I know that my father was, with me. I understand why he had to be distant, because to rip yourself away, time after time, is almost more devastating.

I have an ounce of Lady Gaga's full-bodied ambition.

I definitely try to broaden the scope of music. I don't know if it's pop or classical or what, but I'm religiously challenging myself all the time, for better or for worse.

I've been thinking of trying my hand at rap. I've been recording snippets on my BlackBerry.

I'll be honest, I worry sometimes about what I've done. I have tied my whole person to my art and, whatever it takes to get that hook, I will go there and do it.

The moment something happens to one you love, it's twenty times more intense. You experience pain and enlightenment on a much vaster scale.

I'm your knight in shining armor. I'm here to save you from Linkin Park.

I'm hyper light-sensitive and must sleep in the equivalent of a sealed tomb.

Let the little fairy in you fly!

You know the question: 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall?' Answer: 'Practise?' Well, in my case, I got there by not practising. I didn't finish my music degree. And when I got into the pop world, I decided not to conform because I figured that the point of being an artist was that you shouldn't be like anyone else.

Crazy as it sounds, I'm a believer in destiny and serendipity, and I have had cosmic experiences all my life. Something told me I was meant for greater stuff. And look, I've had a baby! And I've written an opera!

I am regarded as a usurper, as an imposter and dilettante, because I do technically come from the wrong side of the tracks in musical terms.

I am undefinable. I don't fit into any particular category.

I came out of the closet very young, and I had to cut my teeth pretty fast.

Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn't.

I bemoan the fact that all my famous friends have places in St. Bart's and I have to go to Montauk.

I believe a lot of our lives are spent asleep, and what I've been trying to do is hold on to those moments when a little spark cuts through the fog and nudges you.

Why be in music, why write songs, if you can't use them to explore life or an idealized vision of life? I believe a lot of our lives are spent asleep, and what I've been trying to do is hold on to those moments when a little spark cuts through the fog and nudges you.

I would love to have a number one hit. The truth is if I don't get one, I'll be fine, but at the same time, the truth is that I'm dying for one, as well.

Once illness strikes, you realize there's not a lot of time for you to do what you really need to do. And there's no time like the present.

I definitely have a Luddite's approach to what's going on. I find that as I get older, I get stupider.

There is this church that I go to a lot in New York. I'm not religious but I love lighting candles and stuff. I find it useful.

For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.

I could always escape into this demi-monde of homosexuality, which I feel really indebted to. It stopped me being a 'mummy's boy.'

I have this horrible, horrible habit of going on YouTube and checking out comments about what I do.

My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it, really.

My cheeks explode when I smile. That's why I have to look so nonplussed.

Being uncool is being pretty much the coolest you can be.

I am always writing; if you want to survive in this business, you need to keep working, keep creating and never stop the output.

I'm very fit on tour. I try to eat well, try to sleep. But it's still rock n' roll.

You get to a certain age, and you feel the need to reward yourself just for existing.

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.

I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can.

The thing I hate most is false modesty. The artists who are, like, 'Oh, you know, I'm really not that good. Oh, I can't believe I'm here.' I find it vaguely sinister, even.

My love of maple syrup. I've been known to knock back a can over a couple days: A swig here, a swig there, and next thing you know it's gone. It's a habit I have to stave off. I don't want to lose all my teeth.

I should write a musical. That is probably one of the final areas that I should pay attention to, because it does kind of involve everything. It's got theatre, it's got young, pretty people... And it's got money!

It seems like the older I get, the more unreal the world becomes.

I've paid the price; I definitely have a reputation that precedes me, and there is a camp that plots my demise. But then again... it's funner that way.

Life is a game and true love is a trophy.

I'm definitely a fan of juxtaposition. Using the most beautiful line to say the most horrific thing - I think one of the main things in songwriting is definitely friction between the words and the melody.

I'm not born again, I'm not Kabbalah, God forbid, but I did have an experience hitting 30 that I needed to lean on something that assured me that everything is going to be okay. I had to regain a lot of my belief in fairy tales, in happy endings.

My mother had a lot of parties when I was a child. There'd always be a moment when she would place me on the upright piano and have me sing Somewhere 'Over the Rainbow'.

'Prima Donna' is my kind of love song to opera but it's not the full experience.