My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it really.

But I don't even think you hear me at all Under your medieval ceiling behind your biblical wall

I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can.

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.

The artist who gave me the most inspiration and direction, especially as a singer - and I absolutely consider myself a singer, 100 percent - is Nina Simone. She's my ultimate pianist-singer-type person.

I strive for what you do find in Shakespeare's work - that there is a definite humanity and a definite character behind the writing in the sonnets, and it's very real because it's so deeply personal. I try to aspire to that in what I do.

The moment something happens to one you love, it's twenty times more intense. You experience pain and enlightenment on a much vaster scale.