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The only difficult thing is learning to recognise the interesting bits from those millions of moments life provides you with every day and writing down those snippets.
John Grant -
The thing is I don't feel like my story is special. I don't feel like it's different to anybody else.
John Grant
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I'm angry because I was so scared for so many years about just being myself.
John Grant -
I'm quite gregarious. But when it comes to relationships, I mean, I'm no good at it. I suck at it. And people say I'm way too hard on myself, but I always feel like somebody else is going to say it if I don't. Why not just beat them to the punch so it doesn't hurt so much?
John Grant -
I don't really experience much embarrassment.
John Grant -
I just felt that I was going to fall apart if I didn't learn to be myself.
John Grant -
Me becoming a person, instead of somebody who just hides and is afraid, has happened in tandem with me learning to write music and become a good songwriter.
John Grant -
In my family, I was loved, but only if I would fight this gay thing and not let it take over me. I would be loved unconditionally if I could be cured of my 'sickness,' but it certainly would not be OK if I couldn't.
John Grant
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I think I have a great voice, but it's not special enough to be remembered. But what's special about me is much more than just my voice.
John Grant -
I don't let the computer into my bedroom. It would get in the way of life, sleep. And I really can't let that happen.
John Grant -
I can't create music if I'm wearing a mask and not being myself, and that was the problem with The Czars.
John Grant -
I've kept most of my friends for decades, and I continue to make new friends.
John Grant -
I don't feel like I'm writing music for gay people. I'm a gay man who is writing music about one tiny little experience of what it's like to be a human on this planet.
John Grant -
I realized that a lot of the things I had been telling myself about not being good enough just weren't true, and 'Queen of Denmark' gave me the chance to prove to myself that I could do something real.
John Grant
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If 'Queen Of Denmark' was about my childhood, then 'Pale Green Ghosts' is definitely about my adolescence, and that period was completely dominated by electronic music.
John Grant -
The lead character in 'Adaptation' is pretty much me but with more talent. Every time I watch 'Adaptation,' I feel very emotional because it makes me be kinder to myself and see the human situation a little more clearly.
John Grant -
I seem to be very attracted to strong female personalities in acting and music.
John Grant -
There's an incredible amount of pain involved in being a human, but this humorous stuff is essential in overcoming it.
John Grant -
I spent many years trying to fit in and do things the way I thought I was supposed to - trying to be perceived the way I thought people wanted to see me. I grew up in a very religious household and wasn't taught to feel comfortable or good about my sexuality, so it feels great to be able to say things the way I want to say them.
John Grant -
'Ernest Borgnine' is sort of my version of Woody Allen's 'Purple Rose Of Cairo' in that it's about the occasional difficulty of coming to terms with the cold hard facts and the temptation to escape into another world - like movies, for example. I'm a pro at escaping.
John Grant
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That inner narrative - the desire to understand the way I am - never really switches off.
John Grant -
When I reached my senior year in high school, I fell into a hole that took a couple of decades to get out of.
John Grant -
In order to not have to deal with being gay in the world, you have to control everything. You try and walk in an un-gay way so as not to be found out. You try to control every situation, check the people around you, that you're not in the wrong place, and that can be exhausting. It goes on for decades, and it becomes mental sickness.
John Grant -
My mother was a very sweet soul and a beautiful person, but she had a lot of fear.
John Grant