When I write and produce something, I know exactly how I want it to sound, and I have a very strong interpretation of it. I can't really think of anyone at the moment I'd particularly like to play a duet with. You never know, though, I might receive an offer tomorrow and say, "Yeah, that'd be great." But it's not something that's on my mind.
George MichaelMy American gay audience have continued to dance and sing to the music I make in a way that straight Americans haven't. I am grateful to them for that.
George MichaelI'd never touch anything. I think it's foolhardy to play around with the face that you've been given. To have a little snip or a tuck, I think, is really quite obscene.
George Michael[My father] was more than apprehensive. He didn't think I stood a chance in hell. He had no confidence in me whatsoever and was convinced that I was going to be coming to him for money when I was 40. We argued about it constantly.
George MichaelI didn't really think that it would be as easy as this. I did believe that the album [Faith] had a chance, because I though the material was strong enough, but things have just gone like clockwork. It's been incredible.
George MichaelI don't know what age the people who review my concerts reached puberty, I don't know if people in America reach puberty a lot later than they do in England or something like that, but the majority of those people are in their late teens and early twenties.
George MichaelA lot of people felt that I was just tying that into the "I Want Your Sex" theme because of the AIDS thing and the prospect of the song's being banned. I thought it was a relevant point to make because of the AIDS thing. I wanted to write a song which sounded dirty but which was applicable to someone that I really cared about. That was my point.
George MichaelWe [with Andrew Ridgeley] didn't expect people to take it seriously. But naturally they did, and they thought we were a couple of wankers.
George MichaelThat feels natural to me, singing in a small group of people I just can't do. You'll never hear me sing at a dinner table or anything, but this feels kinda natural. I've done it many, many times. So, and also, the pressure's off me cos I'm not singing on my own. I'm just doing a few harmonies with my stuffed nose.
George MichaelTake back your picture in a frame. Take back your singing in the rain. I just hope you understand sometimes the clothes do not make the man.
George MichaelThe thing that's weird is that we thought it was funny. We expected people to get the joke - that we [with Andrew Ridgeley] were two guys really making asses of ourselves.
George Michael[Music From the Edge of Heaven] wasn't really an album at all. The band had made the decision to release an LP and then split up. We wanted to go out with a bang in Britain and the rest of the world by having a single that was four songs, not just one song. But we couldn't do that over here because we couldn't release a single without an album.
George MichaelWe always talked [with Andrew Ridgeley] about when it would happen - we always knew that I would go on to have a solo career.
George MichaelBasically I see that song as a bunch of images which I threw together to represent the fact that I was seeing one girl and then I started seeing another, and it was just the guilt in between those two periods. The ballads I've written since have been about things that really hurt me.
George MichaelMy music is some of the most honest music that's been released and I think that's why people buy it.
George MichaelI get along really well with [my father] now, but I had a terrible time with him in my teenage years. All we did was scream at each other, and when we weren't screaming at each other, we just wouldn't talk to each other.
George MichaelI don't go for safe options. Romantically, I go for people who are a pain in the ass.
George MichaelI find it difficult enough as it is to keep some kind of normality in my life. I enjoy this experience, but I don't know where I'm going to take my career.
George MichaelMe, I don’t want any children, I don’t want responsibility. I am gay, I smoke weed and I do exactly what I want in my life because of my talent. I represent an ideal which others have had to let go and they blame me for that. Especially men.
George MichaelI was at Live Aid the original, looking like Rolf Harris for some reason. I had a really long beard that day for some reason.
George MichaelThe only difficulty is that I'm playing to two audiences, and it's too bad the noise detracts from the show, because it's a great show. I've seen my own self out there, and it's a very good musical show. Sometimes the show gets lost in the hysteria and sometimes it doesn't.
George MichaelI think part of it has got to be compensation, yes, for the fact that when I was a kid, I wasn't particularly attractive. But at the same time I don't remember ever thinking, Oh, my God, I'm such a mess; I'm the ugliest sod in the class.
George MichaelI have two sisters. My father is Greek and comes from a family of seven. My mother is English and comes from a family of five.
George MichaelIt's quite simple: I managed it by doing away with Wham!'s duo image. Obviously, the way I looked changed and that helped a little, but I still have a very pop image. It's a very video-friendly image. I find it a lot more real. It's a lot closer to who I am than the whole Wham! thing.
George MichaelBecause of the media, the way the world is perceived is as a place where resources and time are running out. We're taught that you have to grab what you can before it's gone. It's almost as if there isn't time for compassion.
George MichaelI want the people who came to listen to have a good time as well. So it's a matter of playing a control game when all I really want to do is go out there and sing.
George MichaelI just feel "One More Try" is better lyrically. "Careless Whisper" was written when I was 17 years old, and I had not really experienced anything that strong in my life, so it was a bit precocious.
George MichaelI guess I was about 15. I wore glasses at the time, and I remember [first girlfriend] sitting on the floor at a party, one of those school parties where everyone is getting off with each other. I remember her taking my glasses off and saying something very complimentary about my eyes or whatever, and I was just so pissed off because I was convinced she was taking the piss out of me.
George MichaelThe most common misconception people have had in the past is about my own control and calculation of my career.
George MichaelWe had to create an album where there wasn't one. I never listen to that album [ Music From the Edge of Heaven] because it wasn't an album.
George Michael[My mother] pretty much used to go along with my dad in that she wanted me to get an education so that if this incredible dream I had didn't work out, I would have something to fall back on.
George Michael[My mother] is much more musical, and by the time I started writing songs - by the time I was about 17 - she started to believe in me, musically.
George MichaelI've been approached many times by many different people, and most people want to do something that I write and produce, and I'm just not into that.
George MichaelI had a very important personal point to make with this song [I Want Your Sex]. I just hated the idea that lust and forbidden excitement could only come with sleaze and strangers.
George Michael