John Grant Quotes
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Most of the bad things that have happened to me happened in Denver.
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Do you know the solo at the end of 'Why Don't You Love Me Any More?' that sounds like a chainsaw breaking through? That is what I can't do with my voice. That's when you hear how painful this has been to me.
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When I came out, I found I hadn't been born with the right genes. It's quite brutal. If you're beautiful and you have the right genes, then the gay scene is a place where you can be worshipped. But if you don't, it's a different ball of wax.
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Madeline Kahn is one of my favourite people in the entire world and one of the funniest. She was a talented Broadway star and also sang opera.
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When I write my songs, I'm writing about the pain, the joy, and the ridiculousness of being a human.
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Becoming a musician was all about escape. It was about getting away from the foulness that was me.
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I don't cry easily.
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I can only live in the world of truth, inasmuch as I'm able to be truthful with myself at any given point, on any given day.
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Sometimes I wish I was one of those artists like David Bowie. They're not putting their private lives out there; it's about show and entertainment. But an alter ego is very dangerous for me. Because I am the guy who will become lost in that.
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The lion's share of what I listened to in the Eighties, what really affected me, was coming from Britain.
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People have always painted me like a pessimist, like somebody who sees the glass half-empty. But I think the fact that I keep showing up and saying, 'No, there must be a way for me to live in this world,' that shows I'm an eternal optimist.
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I'm not a big punk fan, but I love a good, solid screamer.
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Being embraced by the British people is a beautiful compliment for me. It feels very special.
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I really do feel like music is the only thing that I can do.
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I'm very proud that I have learned German and Russian. Especially Russian, because of how difficult and beautiful it is and because of how much I struggled in the beginning to get my head around how it works.
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I've kept going to therapy to find out why my perspective is so skewered and why I'm filled with rage. It's so I can live in this world alongside these other people who seem to be what is desired and what the world wants.
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I overthink everything.
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Being in school, whenever I laughed or smiled, I would turn to find someone staring at me with this terrible hatred and disgust. I had to control everything - control my voice, control my facial expressions, control my hair and my clothes, and where I walked and where I sat - at every moment. I think that drove me to terrible anxiety.
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I have to strip away all the layers when I'm writing the song. I have to cut through all these layers of years of putting up walls and putting protective layers around myself.
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Part of what I do, after feeling invisible for a long time, is make an effort not to be invisible any more.
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I'm not saying that I don't have skills. I'm saying I don't feel like I can use my skills to achieve self-esteem. I feel like it's cheating. I think that I should have self-esteem simply because I am a human being who deserves love and deserves everything just as much or just as little as everyone else.
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I would love to be part of a community.
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I don't know about the totally happy album, though. I don't know if that will ever come from me.
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I still deal with triggers and neuroses that I've developed over the decades. But I do think I have a great amount of compassion for people who feel that they don't fit in, or people who feel they have trouble finding their place in this world.