Olly Alexander

It's like any other part of your body - your mental health gets sick, and it needs treatment.

My lyrics are about same-sex relationships, because that's who I am. It was important to me that I felt comfortable expressing myself.

I can be a really awkward frontman on stage.

As young as 10 I started fancying boys. It's a common experience but I just wished I wasn't gay up until the age of 18 or 19.

Words are important. They do matter.

You can't have a nuanced debate on Twitter, it's just people shouting.

I just listen to true-crime podcasts, do some weights and pretend I know what I'm doing.

For a long time - when we first started getting a much higher level of attention - I really struggled with feeling like I was letting people down. Because when you do a show, there are, like, a hundred fans waiting to see you afterwards, and sometimes you can't see them.

Women are so appallingly represented in movies.

The majority of the film industry is, like, obsessed with a ridiculous gender binary and keeping with this stupid social binary. Like, who cares?

I just feel lucky to be able to do stuff I enjoy.

I don't know what's wrong with me - I don't know why I only get picked to play strange characters!

I've mostly worked in weird films playing weird characters, probably because I'm a weird person.

I'm a real left-winger. I fancy Jeremy Corbyn!

The likelihood is that you or someone you know closely will suffer from a mental health condition in your lifetime.

I was never diagnosed with an eating disorder but I definitely had a difficult relationship with food.

I'm fascinated by technology and how it is changing the way we live and view our humanity.

I've always loved sci-fi and fantasy.

When I go on stage and perform, I'm an extreme version of myself.

I'm the person I am because of all the support we have but inside there is still a scared, gay kid, worried he's going to get bullied and people aren't going to like what I do.

I'm a big believer that if you want things to change you have to embody that change.

I don't know if there's ever a point where you go, 'Oh, I'm successful now. Look at all this great stuff I've done,' because I don't think it can be tangible in that way.

I grew up loving artists like the Spice Girls and Britney Spears - artists who seemed to live this fantasy lifestyle, and I remember always wanting to join these fantasy people in that world.

At 13 I taught myself piano from an old song book, and Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' was the first song I learned.

I'd love to work with SBTRKT if he'd have me.

My sexuality is part of my music, part of my identity.

Personally, I've always been ashamed of my body and I've hated being so skinny - I had an eating disorder for so long.

I genuinely do want the world to change in a positive way, but I wouldn't call myself an activist, you know? I'm an entertainer who engages with activism because it feels really meaningful for me.

I've been taking medication for depression and anxiety ever since I was a teenager and I've had treatment for both.

I think music can be therapeutic and a really positive thing, but that seeing a therapist is the best form of therapy you can get.

I think the reason I've been so committed to advocacy is because I see so many people in pain.

There's entrenched homophobia behind the scenes at all levels of the music industry.

I identify as a gay man all the time, but I also like to identify as queer.

I'm not saying that being straight is easy, but when you're gay, you don't really have a familial network or support system. You have to find that.

Solitude is very restorative for me, especially because I spend so much time around other people and performing to people.

I love being alone.

I had what would now be called sleep paralysis, from six years old until maybe I was 16.

When I was younger I thought that if you were famous and successful, it would mean that you just felt happy all the time. That you would become, like, this mystical creature that people just adored. And so you would adore yourself.

I feel like listening to sad songs are a way of narrating your life and confirming your identity.

Let's let our men be happy, be sad, be trans, be questioning, be bisexual, be non-conforming, be feminine, be masculine!

I had such intense self-loathing for so long.

I was obsessed with Jeff Buckley for a while - I was convinced that Jeff Buckley and I were communicating with each other through time.

My mum's super Labour, and my gran. We all love Jeremy Corbyn in the family. Those are very deep roots and I feel like I could never not vote for Labour. Or I could never vote for the Tories because of that.

I don't want to be normal, I don't want to grow up.

Normal is not a thing. No one's actually normal.

I think anything that happens to you between the ages of zero to 18, and probably further on, has a lasting impact on you.

School was like a hostile place. I just hated being at school. I think some people really thrive in that environment. I was a good student, but I just didn't enjoy school. I found it really tough.

I think kids are all focused on their hierarchy and status, and I was low status or something.

I always had really, really bad nightmares, like night terrors or whatever they're called. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to move... I'd hallucinate and have really scary visions and dreams, so I wouldn't want to sleep.

It's just a very weird thing to have a relationship that's commented on by the world wide web.