As gay people, we always think outside of the box. The irreverent is always important to a drag queen and anyone else who lives outside the box. And this is why drag's important: remember to not take life seriously. It's always important to see the laughter in the illusion that we pretend is real.

I'd like to go for people I admire - I always gravitate towards the people I idolized when I was a teenager: Cher, Diana Ross, and David Bowie.

What other people think of me is not my business. What I do is what I do. How people see me doesn’t change what I decide to do.

I love David Bowie and Cher and Diana Ross. I wanted to follow in their footsteps. So I set out to do that in a rock-'n'-roll band in Atlanta, Georgia. That led me to nightclubs and to the sort of Andy Warhol experience of creating a personality.

Sacrifices have to be made if you want to make a dent in the world, and that's what I started out to do - to make a dent in pop culture.

The mantle of glamour has been taken from the women and given to the men. The women toil in their shadows, plain and ordinary-looking. So that transition has left a void. It is a void for drop-dead, impossible, over-the-top glamour. Supermodels fill that void. The only thing they have to do is work the runway, sweetie, and refuse to get out of bed for less than ten thousand dollars.

Illusion starts between the ears. If the person doing illusion doesn't believe it, then the audience doesn't believe it. Seeing the picture in your head will allow the audience to see it in their heads.