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I'm Much More Careful Now About Who I Let Into My Life, But I Don't Think You Could Ever Change What You're Attracted To. You Can Make Choices If You Want To Be With Those People.

-Boy George

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I'm Much More Careful

Boy George

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I'm Much More Careful Now About Who I Let Into My Life, But I Don't Think You Could Ever Change What You're Attracted To. You Can Make Choices If You Want To Be With Those People.

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Being In The Boy Scouts, You Don't Think About Whether People Are Gay Or Straight. You're Busy Putting Up Tents And Learning To Cut Sausages.

The Most Significant New York Club For Me Was Paradise Garage, Where They Played House Music. This Was Around '84 Or '85.

What's Really Sad Is That A Lot Of Very Talented People Are Being Forced To Do Things That Are Very Embarrassing And I Don't Intend To Be One Of Them.

A Lot Of People Felt I Was Getting Work Because I Was Boy George. My Response At The Time Was That There's A Lot Of Djs Making Records, They're Not All Making Good Records, But They Have The Right To Do That.

Leigh Bowery Created Outfits That Made Him Look Deformed, Which Was Very Brave. I Believe This Was The Main Thing That Gave Leigh His Edge. His Designs Were Often Breath-taking, But It Was The Way He Used His Body That Was So Utterly New And Refreshing.

I Like The Big Bombastic Singers, But I'm Also Very Drawn To What I Call Character Singers. They're People Who Obviously Aren't Very Huge Singers, But They've Got This Ability To Tell A Story And Touch You Emotionally Without Really Using Any Kind Of Histrionics Or Special Effects.

Leigh [bowery] Affected A Posh English Voice And Elongated His Vowels, And You Never Knew If He Was Being Sincere Or Mocking You. If I Ever Commented On One Of His Outfits He Would Snip, "oh, Thank You, Mr. Boy George. I Do Value Your Opinion." And Then He Would Spin And Make Some Ridiculous Noise And Mince Off.

I Think These Days, As An Artist, You Have To Be Slightly Entrepreneurial. ...nobody Really Sells Records Anymore.

The Problem With Being On The Road - Especially In A Hot Place Like Florida - Is That You Can Begin To Think You're On Holiday. You Can Partake Of The Buffet A Little Bit More Than You Should, So You Have To Have A Routine.

In Writing The Autobiography, I Can Really Chuckle When I Look At The Songs. I Was Acting Out The Part. I Saw Myself As A Victim.

When Culture Club Broke Up, I Hadn't Been Going Out A Lot Because We'd Been Working All The Time, So I Suddenly Had This Period Of Leisure. And It Was Just Around The Time That The Whole Acid House Thing Kicked Off In London.

The Most Political Thing You Can Do Is Be Yourself

I'm Being Honest, I Say What I Think.

I Started Going To Madame Louise's, The Lesbian Club Where All The Punk Bands Used To Go - The Sex Pistols, The Clash. I Remember Seeing Billy Idol Walk In There; He Was Gorgeous.

When I Go Onstage, I'm Going To Work ...i Feel Like My Performance Is About An Emotional Connection. I Want To Connect With People, Whether It's Like A Romantic Song Or A Happy Song.

Taboo Was Kind Of Celebrating Trash, The Kind Of Records You Secretly Loved, Like Yes Sir, I Can Boogie, By Baccara [laughs] - Things That You Probably Shouldn't Like.

Warren Street Was At The High End Of The New Romantic Scene. They Were Mostly College Art Students And People Who Knew Top Designers.

I Always Feel That My Whole Life Is Representing The Lgbt Community. It's Kind Of What I Do All The Time.

You Get The Odd Person [in Social Media] That Will Write Something Nasty And The Trick Is Not To Engage With Them On Any Level.

For Me With "the Apprentice," It Kind Of Blew Out My Business Brain. I Don't Really Think Of Myself As A Business Person. I Think Of Myself More As A Creative-type Person, But It's Quite Nice To Be Challenged Physically And Mentally.

Voting For New Labour Is Like Helping An Old Lady Across The Road While Screaming 'get A Move On!' Even The Tories, Who You Could Once Rely On To Be Completely Heartless Are Pretending To Care.

I Wear Makeup And Dress This Way Because I Think It Makes Me Look Better. I Am Not Doing It To Get People To Stare At Me. If I Wanted To Do That I Could Just Put A Pot On My Head, Wear A Wedding Dress, And Run Screaming Down The Street.

I'm Not Gay, And I'm Not A Transvestite.

A Lot Of People Come Up To Me All The Time And Say Thank You For Helping Me Be Who I Am. So My Thing Wasn't Just About Sexuality. It Was About Anyone Who Felt Different; Anyone Who Felt Out Of Place. Being Gay Was One Part Of It.

And Being Gay Isn't So Easy, Either I've Always Said That If Anyone Ever Thought I Was Straight They Must Need Glasses - But When I Finally Came Out And Said, "yes, I Do Sleep With Men And I'm Gay," Yeah, I Lost Record Sales. There's No Question - Big, Big Time.

After Half An Hour The Drug Hit Me Like A Sensuous Tidal Wave. I Turned Into A Tactile Temptress And Wanted To Stroke The Whole World. It Gave Me Untold Confidence.

I Wasn't Part Of The Taboo Crowd The Same Way I Was Part Of The New Romantics. I Suppose I Was Seen More As An Elder Statesman Because I Had Been Around The London Club Scene For So Many Years. To The Taboo Crowd I Was Really Seen As A Pop Star, Someone Famous.

The Taboo Crowd Was Certainly Less Precious. They Were Happy To End Up In A Pile Of Vomit And Booze At The End Of The Night. It Was Antifashion, In A Sense. They Were Just As Obsessive As The New -romantics But They Acted Like They Didn't Care.

You Have To Eat At A Certain Time And Eat Properly.

I'm Much More Careful Now About Who I Let Into My Life, But I Don't Think You Could Ever Change What You're Attracted To. You Can Make Choices If You Want To Be With Those People.

Beethoven Had A Great Look. It Was Very Much About The Drama Of Appearance.

I Think Being Individual In The Show Business Is What Gives You Life And Longevity.

I Was About 16 When Punk Started To Happen. It Was So Exciting. You Had A Social Depression Going On In The U.k. There Was A Sanitation Strike. London Was Really Grim, Gray. You Had Margaret Thatcher Coming In. It Was A Really Revolutionary Time.

When You're Younger, You Think You're In Competition With Everyone. You Think Everyone's Success Is A Threat To You, And This Is A Thing You Grow Out Of. You Get Older And You Suddenly Realize The Only Person You're In Competition With Is Yourself.

Sex Has Never Been An Obsession With Me. It's Just Like Eating A Bag Of Crisps. Quite Nice, But Nothing Marvellous.

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Certainly For Me, When Punk Exploded In The 1970s, It Was Just Great. We Had These Wonderful Clothes To Wear. We Could Do Great Things With Our Hair. We Had Protest Badges That Read "i Belong To The Blank Generation." It Was Such A Great Time To Be A Kid.

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Changing Your Mind

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I Feel Like My Career Has Always Been A Series Of Collisions And Accidents. Being In The Right Place At The Right Time. Having The Right Haircut. It's So Mad To Think That It Happened In The Way That It Happened.

Leigh [bowery] Would Create Fake Guest Lists And Put The Most Ridiculous Names On Them - Joan Collins, Or Really Naff Soap Stars Who Would Never Grace The Door Of Taboo.

Madonna Is A "living, Breathing Cash Register."

I Knew Style And Content Went Hand In Hand.

I Exercise. I Go To The Gym Every Day. It's About Respecting What You're Doing. You're Going On Stage. You Have To Sleep. You Have To Be Prepared.

The Band Never Actually Split Up - We Just Stopped Speaking To Each Other And Went Our Own Separate Ways.

I Was About 16 When Punk Started To Happen... It Felt Like You Had This Naive Idea That You Could Change Things Just By Wearing Something.

I Think Drugs Played A Big Role In The Taboo Scene. People Were Taking Copious Amounts Of Ecstasy, Which Had Filtered Over From New York, And At A Certain Point You Were More Likely To Spend Most Of The Night In The Toilets At The Club.

I Was Approached By This Guy Chris Renshaw, Who Had Read My Book And Had Read Leigh's Book. He Wanted To Incorporate Both Characters - He Probably Felt Leigh Wasn't Famous Enough And He Realized Leigh [bowery] And I Were Associated.

I Was Really Good Friends With Matthew Ashman, The Guitarist In Bow Wow Wow. He Died, Unfortunately. He Was One Of My Best Friends During My Sort Of Punk Period.

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Remember That I Was Out Of The Closet At The Age Of Sixteen. My Parents Knew I Was Gay; I'd Had To Tell Them.

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I Try To Exist In A World Where There Is Freedom Of Opinion, Where You're Allowed To Make Jokes. I Don't Want To Live In Some Pc World Where No-one's Allowed To Say Anything.

I Enjoy The Freedom Of Living Alone And Not Having Anyone Interfere With My Belongings. I Mean, I'm Quite A Selfish Human Being. I Think Being In The Public Eye And Growing Up, It's Made Me Quite Selfish In Some Respects. I Can Be Extremely Generous With Friends, But In Relationships I Can Be Quite Mean In Terms Of My Time And My Affections. I Take People For Granted, And I'm Trying Not To Do That.

I Was Unwelcome In The U.s. For Four Years.

[arnold Schwarzenegger] Is Really Good At ['the New Celebrity Apprentice' Show]. Totally Different Energy To Our Potential President, But He's Cool.

Leigh Bowery Was Actually Quoted As Saying, "flesh Is My Most Favorite Fabric." I've Seen Many A Freak Make A Scene And Go, But Leigh Was A Special Kind Of Exhibitionist Because He Was Dedicated And Saw It As An Art Form.

The Best Thing You Can Do Is Work On Your Personality Because We're All Gonna Get Ugly.

Karma Chameleon: We Come And Go, We Come And Go.

I Felt That Making Records In A Traditional Way - Putting Them Out In The Same Way, Wasting Loads Of Money - Was Just A Pointless Exercise.

Don't Talk About Things You Don't Like. Talk About Music That You Love, Books That You've Read. I Put A Lot Of Recipes Online.

You Have To Watch What You Eat.

I Think For Me One Of The Big Things Was Realizing That Being Boy George Is My Job. It's What I Do.

The New Romantic Scene Was So Tiny. Although It Got Lots Of Mileage In The Media, It Was A Really Small Club With Only A Core Group Of People. As It Got More Popular, Kids Started To Come From The Suburbs All Dressed Up, But It -really Wasn't As Big As It Looked.

I'd Got Very Successful, Everyone Knew Who I Was, But I Felt Very Empty.

You Find Out So Many Interesting Things When You're Not On Drugs.

Interesting Things

I Just Go In My Back Garden. It's The Only Place Where People Don't Come And Bother You.

Leigh [bowery] Obviously Loved Having Me In The Club Because I Would Attract Media, And He Loved And Lived For His Column Inches.

Part Of Me Looks At The Gay Movement Now And Worries That We're Losing Our Individuality.

Leigh [bowery] Would Make Up Stories About People Committing Suicide Or Going On Hunger Strikes Because They Were Refused Entry At The Door.

[arnold Schwarzenegger] Is Funny. Some Great One-liners, Some Great Banter Between Him And The Contestants [on "the Apprentice" ]. And He's Good!

What Happened During The Previews Of 'taboo' [musical] Was That It Was The First Time I'd Ever Been Written About As A Great Song-writer - I Cried. I Absolutely Wept, Because It Wasn't The Usual Stuff Like, "oh, He Was A Drug Addict And He Did This And That..." It Was Really Looking At The Music And It Was Really Complimentary. It Was A Huge Thing.

I Have The Best Job In The World. There's Not Really A Lot To Moan Or Whine About. I've Got The Privilege Of Going Out And Doing Something I Absolutely Love.

I Suppose All Of Those New Romantic Clubs Were Quite Up Their Own Asses In A Way. Well, Taboo Was Up Its Own Ass In A Different Way, But Not In Terms Of Rules.

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A Difficult Crowd Will Always Test Your True Ability.

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The Fabulous Side Of Taboo Was Dressing Up And Dancing Like No One Was Watching You. There Were No Rules. You Had Jeffrey Hinton Playing Every Kind Of Music. It Was Like Going Back To When I Used To Deejay At Planet In '79, Where You'd Mix In Nutty Things Like Hip-hop Or Reggae Or The Sound Of Music [1965] Or Other Film Soundtracks - Whatever.

Someone Once Said A Cynic Is Just A Disappointed Romantic. That Really, Really Sums Me Up.

The World Is Less Homophobic, Depending On Where You Are In The World... As A Gay Man I Feel Very Strongly About Those Issues Around The World - There've Been Huge Changes And Developments, But There Are Still Places Where Things Are Scary.

We Changed The Name From Sex Gang Children To Culture Club Because Jon Moss, Our Drummer, Went To L.a. On Holiday And Took Some Demo Tapes With Him. -everyone Loved The Music But Nobody Liked The Name. I -remember Getting A Postcard From Jon From L.a. Saying, "i Don't Think America's Ready For The Sex Gang Children."

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In Fact, He [george Michael] Was Loitering In Public Loos Like Some Pre-war Homosexual. It's One Thing To Keep Quiet. It's Another To Pretend You're Someone You're Not.

My God Is Better Than Your God

You're Lucky If You Reach The Point Where You Go, "ok, I Have A Wonderful Life ...i Fly Around The World, Stay In Beautiful Places, People Are Generally Quite Sweet To Me, What's To Complain About?" But I Think You Have To Get There... And It's Taken Me The Best Part Of 54 Years To Reach That Point Where I'm Like, "i'm Very Lucky, I'm Lucky, I'm Blessed" - All Of Those Things. I Wish I Could Impart That To Other People But I Think When You're Young, You Just Don't Listen.

As A Kid, I Would've Loved To Get A Tweet From David Bowie Or Joan Rivers Or Tom Cruise. It's Great That You Can Communicate With People And It's Instant.

A Lot Of Donna Summer And Things That Maybe Weren't Trendy Anymore Or Weren't Hip In Gay Clubs But You'd Hear Them At Taboo.

I'm Not Someone Who Can Sing Anything... And My Favorite Singers Aren't People Whose Voice You Would Say Is Amazing. I'm A Big Bob Dylan Fan, A Huge David Bowie Fan... None Of Those People Have Orthodox, Cabaret Voices. These Are People Where What They're Singing About Is Just As Important As How They're Singing It.

For Me, I've Gotten Better At That Since I've Gotten Older. I Never Was Good At That When I Was Younger.

I Find That Most People [in Social Media] Just Want Me To Say "happy Birthday" To Their Mom Or Wish Them Good Luck With Their Exams.

The Taboo Scene Was A Kind Of Deconstructed Version Of The New Romantics. The Taboo Crowd Was Using A Lot Of The Visual Ideas That Had Already Been Used. I Remember The First Time I Spotted Leigh Bowery And Trojan Parading Around In Clubs: They Were In Their "pakis From Outer Space" Look, And The Makeup Was Quite Similar To One Of My Old Looks, Because I Was Quite Fond Of Wearing Blue, Green, Or Yellow Foundation, And So I Was Pretty Dismissive Of Them At First.

Gay Unions, What Is That About? I Haven't Been Invited To Any Ceremonies, And I Wouldn't Go Anyway. The Idea That Gay People Have To Mimic What Obviously Doesn't Work For Straight People Any More... I Think Is A Bit Tragic. I Am Looking Forward To Gay Divorces.

On Madonna: She's A Gay Man Trapped In A Woman's Body.

Drugs Became An Obsession, Like Culture Club Had Been, Like Religion Later Became Although I'm Through With That Now.

A Lot Of What I've Been Learning In The Last Two Years Is Due To Therapy - About My Sexuality, Why Things Go Wrong, Why Relationships Haven't Worked. It Isn't Anything To Do With Anybody Else; It's To Do With Me.

I Am What I Am. There's Nothing I Can Do About It.

I'm Always Tweeting About Food And Things That I've Made.

Everything I Think In Life Is About Context And Intention.

I Absolutely Admit I Had Him In The Handcuffs So He Wouldn't Go Anywhere While I Checked The Computer... I Certainly Wasn't Going To Kill Him. That's Hardly Going To Do My Career Any Good, Is It?

Sometimes Indifference Can Be So Erotic. I Think The People Who Are Most Dismissive Of You Get The Most Of Your Attention.

I Remember Going Onstage On Broadway In This Leigh Bowery Thing For A Track Like "ich Bin Kunst." I've Got Breasts, This Latex Dripping Down On My Head, And I Come Out In A Box. I Just Remember The Audience Looking Really Horrified Because Rosie [o'donnell] Was Trying To Sell The Show As Sort Of Pippin And Annie. She Was Saying It's A Family Show.

For Me The Most Interesting Thing About Leigh Bowery Was The Way He Used His Body As A Style Statement. He Was A Big Guy, But, Because He Was Tall And Had Long Legs, He Looked In Proportion - Even Sexy - Despite Being Overweight By Conventional Standards.

I Think We Grow Into Ourselves. And Unfortunately We Do It In The Spotlight, So When We Make Mistakes, Everybody Knows About It.

I Think People Could Be A Bit Friendlier. The Only Real Contact You Have With People Is When They're Annoyed If You've Had A Party - You Know, It's Been A Bit Too Noisy For Them Or Something.

Comparing Madonna With Marilyn Monroe Is Like Comparing Raquel Welch With The Back Of A Bus.

When You Go Onstage, You Go On There To Have A Good Time, And You Smile And You Engage With The Audience And You Invite Them In.

Having A Good Time

Very Few People Can Truly Divorce Themselves From What They Feel Emotionally And Sexually.

Separation Penetrates The Disappearing Person Like A Pigment And Steeps Him In Gentle Radiance.

Long Distance Relationship

Most Of My Influences Are From The Past.

I Would Rather Have A Cup Of Tea Than Sex.

For Me, Touring Is About Looking After Myself.

I Also Tried To Avoid Doing Obvious Dance Records.

I Don't Know Whether When I Was 20 Years Old Or 25 Years Old If Somebody Would Have Come Along With Incredible Wisdom Whether I Would Have Really Listened.

When I First Went To New York, I Didn't Really Go Out To Clubs. It Was The Height Of Culture Club So I Didn't Really Have A Social Life. It Was Only After I Had Been To New York A Few Times That I Started Going Out.

I Suppose There Is A Lot Of Toughness In Me.

Whenever There's An Interview With Me, I Might Read It, But I Don't Read The Comments Because They're So Hateful Sometimes. When Someone Writes Something Nasty, I Just Think, "if That's Your Contribution To My Day, I Really Don't Need Your Impoliteness." I'm Lucky That People Are Very Cool With Me And I Get A Lot Of Love. I Appreciate That.

My Family Knew I Was Gay When I Was 15, Long Before I Got Famous. But It's A Very Different Thing Coming Out To Your Family And Coming Out To The Universe. That's A Big Step. Maybe Without Me, There Wouldn't Be Adam Lambert. Without Bowie, There Wouldn't Be Me. Without Quentin Crisp, There Wouldn't Have Been Bowie. So Everything Is Part Of A Big Daisy Chain.

My Mother And Father Were Fantastic, Very Active. I Find It Difficult To Say This, But I'm Quite A Loving Person And I've Always Been Loving To My Friends. In The Long Run, That Pays Off. I'm Very Interested In Other People, And If You Are, They're Interested In You.

There's This Illusion That Homosexuals Have Sex And Heterosexuals Fall In Love. That's Completely Untrue. Everybody Wants To Be Loved.

Falling In Love

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