“Female performers have been doing this for years – pushing the envelope about sexuality – and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out.”

“‘Come out’ is so funny to me because I’ve never been in.”

“After my tour I had time to stay at home, be with my boyfriend and hang out with friends and that brought me down to earth and helped me write music from a more relaxed place.”

“At least I can say that I’m honest.”

“Carving out an identity for yourself is important so I’m trying to do that as well.”

“Conforming is not cool.”

“Female performers have been doing this for years – pushing the envelope about sexuality – and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out.”

“I am gay, and I’m very comfortable with it.”

“I breeze through Twitter – I look at the mentions, the pictures, the videos.”

“I didn’t feel attractive in high school.”

“I don’t like to look typical.”

“I get why certain actors want to stay in the closet.”

“I had self-esteem issues into my early 20s.”

“I have crushes on women all the time. I don’t have intimate relationships with them, but I find women beautiful.”

“I haven’t had many relationships.”

“I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it’s fast and broad.”

“I like to get real pretty.”

“I love myself and I am a good person.”

“I never wore full-on eyeliner in high school, but I wanted to.”

“I started rejecting the proper way to sing and I started singing.”

“I think Lady Gaga is great and is changing pop music and bringing back a certain rock ‘n’ roll spirit, swagger to the game.”

“I think sometimes we’re meant to do something but things aren’t lined up correctly.”

“I think the difficult thing is the transition between TV competition series and going into the actual music industry. There still seems to be a slight disconnect there.”

“I think you kind of have to put yourself out there.”

“I try not to get trapped in any one musical or visual style at all.”

“I want to upset people, I want to make people think, I want to keep people interested.”

“I was a big fan of Middle Eastern elements of music and experimental electronic and tribal sounds.”

“I was really beating myself up about performances and how I looked and this and that.”

“I worked at Starbucks when I was 16… It was all right.”

“I wouldn’t ever give myself the label bisexual, but bi-curious, yeah.”

“I’m not a babysitter.”

“I’m proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.”

“I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader.”

“I’m very inspired by past music.”

“I’ve been kind of toying around with the bi thing in my head. I wouldn’t ever give myself the label ‘bisexual’, but bi-curious? Yea.”

“I’ve only dressed in drag three or four times.”

“In middle school, I really didn’t have music, but in high school, I remember taking a lot of choir and drama.”

“Los Angeles can be a really sad city.”

“My dad is a Deadhead, my mom’s a Jewish-American princess from Jersey.”

“My mother was always supportive.”

“Nowadays in pop, there’s not a lot of men that are singing big and loud and high – it’s not as common as it once was.”

“Pop is a little bit theatrical. That’s the whole vibe. That’s the point – is that it’s great music, great melodies, great hooks. But, on top of it, it’s a presentation. There’s a showmanship about it. And that’s why I wanted to be a pop star.”

“So pretty much, to sum it up, if you can freak someone out and bring that kind of emotion out of somebody with a song, you’re doing something right.”

“The kids that are different and out there and expressive and are bold with those choices, those are the people that grow up to be people we all want to hang out with, that become celebrities or become really successful in what they do because they believe in who they are.”

“There are female artists I can look at that I find more in common with than the male artists, because they’re blending the pop, dance and theatricality… but currently there aren’t a lot of guys who go there.”

“There’s a certain level of pageantry with ‘Idol,’ and in order to work the show, you kind of have to feed into it.”

“There’s not a blueprint for me to follow.”

“Wait a minute, I’m a fan of yours; you can’t be a fan of mine!”

“When I was kid, I remember playing ‘Vogue’ by Madonna over and over and over again. And ah, you know, something about the beat was really cool, and Madonna, visually, was on TV all the time and I thought she was just so beautiful.”

“Yeah, I think speculation keeps things really interesting.”

“You know, if it weren’t for these fans, I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did.”