When I was kid, I remember playing 'Vogue' by Madonna over and over and over again. And ah, you know, something about the beat was really cool, and Madonna, visually, was on TV all the time and I thought she was just so beautiful.

There's a certain level of pageantry with 'Idol,' and in order to work the show, you kind of have to feed into it.

I have crushes on women all the time. I don't have intimate relationships with them, but I find women beautiful.

'Come out' is so funny to me because I've never been in.

I was really beating myself up about performances and how I looked and this and that.

I'm trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader.

I think the difficult thing is the transition between TV competition series and going into the actual music industry. There still seems to be a slight disconnect there.