Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Violet Chachki

Well, I was raised in the south, so it's like Bible belt vibes. I went to Catholic school, so I had a male uniform my whole life. I always had very specific gender roles with hair and makeup and nails. Every single little aspect of me was gendered and then I was told aesthetically what was allowed per my gender.

I vividly remember hearing the car pull into the driveway and looking into the mirror on my mom's vanity with a face full of makeup and the counter below me a mess; it sent me into complete panic mode. From there, I would steal bits of makeup where I could to start my own little collection and play in my bedroom with the door locked.

For me and my drag, I think camp is about exaggeration and artifice and the celebration of superficiality. A lot of my fans look up to me as a figure of femininity but that's all artifice. That's all fake and that's campy within itself, and so that's what resonates to me: the seriousness and the funniness and the artifice and the exaggeration.

You always have to try something to know what's gonna happen next.

I am, by nature, not optimistic: my fellow drag queens would probably describe me as a pessimist.

I use glamour as a tool, almost like armor to confidently take up space, to provoke questions and conversations about society and gender norms.

I have a lot of young followers, and I try to instill a sense of strength for the next generation, because it's not easy.

I like being in control and having total creative freedom.

I had to change foundations four or five times and I finally found one that I think my skin agrees with.

You're not alone if you have skin problems or if makeup is irritating you.

That's what I really love about glamour and drag; it's about celebrating femininity and fun, while being really provocative.

Drag is all about taking references, taking pop culture and flipping it on its head.

Costuming and clothing plays a really important role in my drag.

Showing variety in representation in casting is super important, it gives minorities a platform and I think it definitely creates a safe space for conversation and progress.

I've always really loved cinematography and glamorous old Hollywood movies and they go hand in hand.

I think barefaced, minimal makeup happens mostly on editorial shoots. And I've taken a swing at minimal makeup here and there, but I think a lot of what drag celebrates is the opposite of that. I think the inauthenticity and the hyperfemininity is part of why it's so celebrated.

There are so many drag queens on 'Drag Race.' In order to have a fulfilling career, you have to do well on the show. You have to make yourself stand out.

Skincare is a journey for everyone. Everyone's skin is different, so there's no one answer.

If you were supposed to be a drag queen, and that's what you wanted to do, you'd be doing it already, you wouldn't be in my DMs asking me how to do so. When I started I was ugly, but I didn't think I was ugly. You have to not dream it, but be it - that's it.

Where I come from, camp was kind of looked down upon because the drag queens that I grew up with took themselves so seriously.

It's very important to have visual representation, to show that queers are important, queers are powerful, queers are beautiful, queers are valid, and you can't erase us.

I was constantly getting in trouble, constantly trying to break the rules. Even when I was coming up in the drag scene, I was known as sort of the rule breaker, the rebel, the bad girl.

I love burlesque. I'm a decent aerialist. I think I set myself apart visually.

To be honest, I'm kind of a Grinch.

I'm not a trendy person, I don't like to be.

I really would like to be an advocate for LGBT youth or transgender youth, or transgender people in general.

I have a lamp problem. I'm addicted to lamps.

Sometimes, when I am in a moment of self-doubt, I think - you're Violet Chachki, you can do and achieve whatever you want.

The drag culture in the States is very rich and has a lot of history behind it.

I have an amazing collaborative relationship with Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba. They always understand my vision and also have their own references to bring to the table, the results are always incredible.

I'm a fashion hoarder. I have a ton of stuff, and I like to cycle it out to have room for more stuff.

My solo show, 'A Lot More Me,' is part drag show, part burlesque show, part circus show, and part fashion show.

I really really love Atlanta. There are tons of amazing artists.

At things like DragWorld and Drag Con, you see young people come out in droves and be moved to tears, or hear their stories about how they found strength in what we do.

Notes on 'Camp' talks a lot about homosexuality and androgyny and performance and a false seriousness, nit-picking the trivial things and making them funny. And that's exactly what drag does. Reading through the entire essay I couldn't help but relate all of it back to drag.

It feels like a lot of times when I'm watching people perform, they're just going through the motions and checking boxes. Costume - good, hair - good, make-up - good, death drop - good; it's like they're just going through a checklist of what makes a 'good performance' but it's not entertaining, it's very disposable.

I started doing drag as a form of rebellion and expression and then I got attention and it snowballed.

I just love glamour so any time period that had a lot of excess and glamour, I draw inspiration from. All the stuff from the 60s and 70s, very specific times in the 80s.

Being a drag superstar, traveling the world and touring, it really is not as glamorous as you'd think it is. There's lots of airport drama and bags and buses and hotels. Dating and having a social life are impossible.

I just take inspiration from anything that visually stimulates me.

I mean, casting gender non-conforming people in campaigns and editorials and on covers of magazines is a risk for any business because there's going to be controversy, but I think they need to take the risk and believe they're moving in the right direction.

I've always been a rule-breaker and a rebel. For me, drag has always been about rebellion, but also escapism. I think being able to creatively direct your own world is super powerful - and it's beautiful.

It's not my thing to dance in my living room on a livestream, so I'm really having to figure out ways to elevate the digital world and bring it to the level that I've held my drag at for so long.

I've always put a lot of stock in aesthetics and visuals. I truly believe a picture is worth a thousand words and that fashion and glamour have the power to transport and transform someone.

I'm proud of what I've accomplished and that is empowering.

For me, makeup will always be about glamour, fantasy, and escapism!

What's holding us back from being free is fear. Whether it be fear of those on the outside who don't understand queer people or any other minority, or the actual minorities themselves being scared. The lack of freedom we experience is all tied to fear.

I'm like a cross between Bettie Page and Lady Miss Kier but a guy.

I had always watched HGTV with my mom when I was very young, we would cuddle and watch interior design shows. I think those TV shows are what made me start thinking about aesthetics in a critical way. I think I could always tell when a person or an item was different or expensive or well designed and that was always exciting to me to see.

To the fashion world, a man in a dress will always be camp. But in the drag world, you have specific genres. So for me, for instance, I'm most categorized as a 'look queen.'

I've always been inspired by Thierry Mugler and John Galliano.

I draw a lot of inspiration from different time periods.

There's nothing I love more than admiring the details and embellishments on the works of art that I wear.

The reason I started drag in the first place is because I felt like I never really fit in, and I still don't feel like I fit in to any of those places: the drag world, the circus world or the burlesque world. I'm kinda this combination of everything, so it made sense to me that I'd set out to do my own solo show.

For me, drag is about two things - confidence and glamour. Drag is about using artiface and illusion to tap into the self-confidence we all have. And glamour is about taking what you have naturally and showcasing in a way that makes you feel good. It's truly a practice in faking it until you make it.

Glamour has the potential to be very powerful in that way without saying anything.

My name itself is extremely campy. Violet Chachki literally translates to purple doodad.

There's so many different identities out there and I think they all deserve some visibility.

I started as an inexperienced drag queen with awful makeup serving daiquiris to obnoxious bachelorette parties.

I've always wanted to put my drag character in film because you can have total control over what you're projecting, what image you're portraying.