There are always going to be people that are judgmental that are going to say, 'Well, he was an actor first, so he doesn't have the right to be a musician,' or, 'I know him as this, so therefore I will never accept him as that.' I can't change those people. I can only be myself. And I can only keep making art. I can only do the best that I can. I am not going to spend my life trying to silence the critics. I'm going to do what I'm passionate about and follow my dreams.

You know it's a perverted crowd when a guy is screaming at you to take your shirt off.

I remember seeing this image of these women wearing these bright clothes and patterns, and it struck me. I remember taking note and going, like, "What is that? Who is that?" and finding out it was Gucci and being surprised.

You've got one life, live it. Follow your dreams, quit your job, drop out of school, tell your boyfriend that he's lousy and walk out the door. This is your time. This is your life. You know what? Dream as big as you want to, its the cheapest thing you'll ever do.

Alessandro [Michele] has really done the impossible. He's taken this classic brand [Gucci] and really turned it completely around and taken it in a direction that was so unexpected. [Alessandro and I] met and became friends here in L.A., and then we got to know each other and he asked me to do this. It was really organic and not the way this stuff normally happens.

My coolest job was when I was 12 and I was a dishwasher at the Three Pigs Bar-B-Que for $2.50 an hour. All the fleabags and stoners worked there, so that’s where I wanted to be.

I Lived on the street when i was a kid, i wasn’t even at school, so i had a whole different set of experiences for those formative years. I was gone… i was in a very precarious place when i was younger.