I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece.

'Born this Way' is about being yourself, and loving who you are and being proud.

If there was some sort of mathematical equation for beauty, I don't know if I would be the algorithm. I've always been OK with that. I'm not a supermodel. That's not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what's happening on the outside.

In the deepest hour of the night I confess to myself three things; I would die if I was forbidden to write, forbidden to love, or forbidden to fashion....love each other, and celebrate the art and lifestyle of music.

It has been hard for me to find it, but I have found love.

More education for women. More jobs for women. More equal opportunities for women. More women to be taken seriously. And I think more than anything we wish to be heard and not to be shut down. I think this is a good thing to think about for any community; what is important is that our voices be heard and not swallowed in an abyss of history.

O, say does that star-spangled flag of pride yet wave? O'er the land of the free, and the home for the gay!