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

I had never considered myself a political guy, but there are certain things I can't shut up about. When I hear people say things like, 'If 'we' allow gays to marry, then people will want to marry animals and children,' I can't just stand there.

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

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.

For me, every single thing I do seems to be about the process of letting go because that's what I so desperately need to do with so many things: with fear, with what people think of me, and all these things I've worried about my whole life.

I don't want to leave the house, and I don't want to settle down.

Most of the bad things that have happened to me happened in Denver.

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

I don't cry easily.

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.

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.

It's always been my goal to have backing singers.

If I'm honest, I suppose there's something I don't want people to see in my eyes. They really are the window to the soul.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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

It's not like we wanted to talk about the fact that we're gay all the time, but the world has forced it to be an issue.

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

I love a lot of different styles, but my heart belongs in electronic music.

The rejection I received when I was young for being a homosexual... that's nothing compared to the number you do on yourself when you've been taught that you are not a human like other people.

You can only be you, and there are plenty of people out there who wouldn't have you be any other way.

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.

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

The thing is I don't feel like my story is special. I don't feel like it's different to anybody else.

I feel like, in the Czars, for example, I was afraid. I couldn't express myself. I didn't have a connection to myself. That's one of the huge reasons why it was such a difficult existence. I put a lot of that on myself. I couldn't access myself. I couldn't look at myself, because I was too ashamed.

My mother was a very sweet soul and a beautiful person, but she had a lot of fear.

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.

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.

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.

I can't allow myself to censor myself.

I suppose my ideal brain food is learning languages.

I would love to be part of a community.

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.

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

Reykjavik has a mixture of southern and northern mentality. There's a laid-back, relaxed attitude but also the feeling things are going to get done.

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

I'm not a big punk fan, but I love a good, solid screamer.

I don't really listen to my old music.

The lion's share of what I listened to in the Eighties, what really affected me, was coming from Britain.

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

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 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 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.

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.

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 don't really experience much embarrassment.