John Grant

When I got into languages, I needed to amass things to make myself more palatable or more acceptable as a human.

I could probably use some tips from a vocal trainer or something about breathing, but we all know it's not about technical prowess.

I grew up singing in a church choir.

I just feel like this guy who's visiting the music business over the weekend. Every time I write a song, I feel like it's never going to happen again.

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?

I overthink everything.

I do feel I have a hard time dealing with things being OK.

The most horrifying thing I ever did was work as a steward on an airplane. I wanted to get hired by United. I thought, 'With my languages, this will be amazing; I will work in First Class.' But I could only get a job with an airline going from Newark, New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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.

Icelanders love to speak English. Their English is a joy to hear because of how colloquial and idiomatic it is, but they appreciate your efforts with Icelandic.

When I was young, people were so disgusted by me. Before I even knew that I was gay... everybody else had it figured out and, you know, they were letting you know.

I'm angry because I was so scared for so many years about just being myself.

I know I'm likeable, but living with me is different. Yes, I can be charming. That desire to please people and learning what to do to charm their socks off is something many of us do. But you get into a relationship, and the party's over at some point. They see the real you.

That inner narrative - the desire to understand the way I am - never really switches off.

Becoming a musician was all about escape. It was about getting away from the foulness that was me.

When I reached my senior year in high school, I fell into a hole that took a couple of decades to get out of.

The first 20 years had such a profound effect on me, I spent the next 20 dealing with them.

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.

I could have easily said that I don't believe in anything when I came out of the upbringing that I had, but I do still believe that there is something there, and I have a difficult time figuring it out. I suppose I don't want to be thought of as stupid or unintelligent because I believe that there's something out there bigger than us in the world.

The snappier lyrics come when I'm feeling really good and up. A lot of times, they come after I've just had a meeting with somebody that was uplifting, and you get home, and you're feeling playful or upbeat or whatever, and then they just seem to pop right out.

I feel like, every single decision I make and every single album I make, it's all about letting go. Letting go of the past and just getting on with it.

I've kept most of my friends for decades, and I continue to make new friends.

It really was an amazing thing when Midlake brought me down to Texas and created an atmosphere in which I felt really safe and was able to do whatever I wanted artistically.

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.

I believe humans have a soul that continues to exist after they die, but I don't know what form that will take.

I don't really experience much embarrassment.

I love that phrase that parents say to their children when they cry: 'I'll give you something to cry about.'

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.

I can't allow myself to censor myself.

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.

I have trouble with things like Facebook. It presents such a warped vision. I get sick of people's opinions about every little thing and this warped view that everyone is as happy as a pig in garbage.

Part of what I do, after feeling invisible for a long time, is make an effort not to be invisible any more.

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.

It took me a long time to find my own voice, even after I started making my own music.

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.

I felt like a failure for so long because I wasn't able to access myself in the way I knew I would have if I was going to make music that mattered. I knew I was going to have to learn how to be honest.

I think The Czars had an identity crisis, as we were five guys pulling in different musical directions.

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.

I would love to be part of a community.

I was so ashamed of who I was. And I also felt like an outcast in gay society as well because I wasn't good-looking enough; my body wasn't good enough.

I'm a seriously flawed individual, but I guess everybody is.

I think the thing that I find the most difficult to talk about is religion.

I spend a lot of my time just looking at words and grammar and writing things down that I don't know.

I just felt that I was going to fall apart if I didn't learn to be myself.

'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.