Gaga and Stefani are my nicknames. I guess when people meet me for the first time and call me Stefani, it bothers me. Because it's something that's reserved for only the people who are closest to me. It's not because I don't like my given name; it's that I became somebody else. I became somebody else for a reason, you know. This is part of what my message is - you can become whoever you want to be, to escape your past.
Lady GagaI often think people don't know what to think of me, and in fact this is precisely the objective of many of my creations. Even back in the days with Lady Starlight, my original partner, we aimed to bemuse. This feeling of bemusement - it's neither good nor bad. It just is. Whether critics realize it or not, they've been in a very long argument since my public birth.
Lady GagaI realized that it's my own fault that people take advantage of me. I should be around people who cherish my talents, my health, my time. I'm not a pawn for anyone's future business. I'm an artist. I deserve better than to be loyal to people who only believe in me because I make money.
Lady GagaI don't see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way - artistically.
Lady GagaWhen I was younger, I felt pressure to become someone else once I became successful. But it's the intention of the work that's changed. I have fans now. I have a new purpose: to remind them that I am one of them, that we are one another. My consciousness has changed.
Lady GagaEvery bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.
Lady GagaI am a woman of theatre, I'm a librarian of theatre and I love all different kinds of music and all different kinds of expressions.
Lady GagaYou have to fail and then get better. Then you have to fail again, and then get even better.
Lady GagaIt doesn't matter who you are, or where you come from, or how much money you've got in your pocket. You have your own destiny and your own life ahead of you.
Lady GagaI very much want to inject gay culture into the mainstream. It's not an underground tool for me. It's my whole life.
Lady GagaMen weren't always happy for me. It was very challenging to watch a woman be so successful.
Lady GagaYou start to become successful, and everybody starts to drive your money train to the bank, and they're not thinking anymore about what you want as an artist or if any of that even matters to you. It genuinely upsets people in my life that I don't care about money, and that's not my problem.
Lady GagaThe only thing that I am concerned with in life is being an artist .. I had to suppress for so many years in high school because I was made fun of but now I'm completely insulated in my box of insanity and I can do whatever I like.
Lady GagaSo basically I did this whole show carrying 100lbs, looking out of one eye, dancing – and then my tits explode at the end. It's not as easy as it looks!
Lady GagaAkon is a very talented songwriter to work with. His melodies, they're just insane. It's funny, I think about him a lot when I'm doing my melodies because he's so simple, and he's just been great. He keeps me on my feet, very grounded, but he also puts me on a silver platter, which is always very nice. So it's been an incredible influence. It's like every time you work with somebody that's better that you are, you become greater.
Lady GagaI'm doing everything that I can, working with experts, really studying the statistics to figure out a way we can make it cool or normal to be kind and loving.
Lady GagaMy fashion is about the urban woman in the year 3000. I think about obscure, weird things and try to create a world around them.
Lady GagaI had this dream, and I really wanted to be a star. And I was almost a monster in the way that I was really fearless with my ambitions.
Lady GagaI decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn't want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.
Lady GagaWell my music was different in high school; I was singing about love—you know, things I don't care about anymore.
Lady GagaI'm a single girl. I like to have a good time. I just sleep with the guys in the band all the time because it's easier.
Lady GagaI want the deepest, darkest, sickest parts of you that you are afraid to share with anyone because I love you that much.
Lady Gaga