110+ Rufus Wainwright Quotes On Music, Road And Tour

Rufus Wainwright is a Canadian singer-songwriter and composer. He is the son of folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and is known for his baroque-pop and operatic pop music. He has released eight studio albums, and has been nominated for several awards, including a Grammy Award and two Brit Awards. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Rufus Wainwright on love, life, music.

Top 10 Rufus Wainwright Quotes

1. I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.
2. There's no life without humour. It can make the wonderful moments of life truly glorious, and it can make tragic moments bearable.
3. I believe a lot of our lives are spent asleep, and what I've been trying to do is hold on to those moments when a little spark cuts through the fog and nudges you.
4. I'm your knight in shining armor. I'm here to save you from Linkin Park.
5. Life is a game and true love is a trophy.
6. I was in the forest jumping around daffodils while everyone was high on heroin.
7. I am always writing; if you want to survive in this business, you need to keep working, keep creating and never stop the output.
8. Cigarettes and chocolate milk These are just a couple of my cravings Everything it seems I like's a little bit stronger A little bit thicker A little bit harmful for me.
9. I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can.
10. Being uncool is being pretty much the coolest you can be.

Rufus Wainwright Short Quotes

• I think we could all be a bit more elitist.
• For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust.
• Let the little fairy in you fly!
• I have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds, but I can't seem to get to grips with money.
• I do not consider myself a guitar player. My father is a guitar player - I'm not.
• I'm very fit on tour. I try to eat well, try to sleep. But it's still rock n' roll.
• I am undefinable. I don't fit into any particular category.
• I came out of the closet very young, and I had to cut my teeth pretty fast.
• I have an ounce of Lady Gaga's full-bodied ambition.
• Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn't.

Rufus Wainwright Quotes About Love

All humans realize they are loved when witnessing the dawn; early morning is the triumph of good over evil. Absolved by light we decide to go on. — Rufus Wainwright

I don't want to hold you and feel so helpless I don't want to smell you and lose my senses And smile in slow motion With eyes in love. — Rufus Wainwright

That will to love is very powerful. But it doesn't always win. — Rufus Wainwright

Prima Donna is my kind of love song to opera but it's not the full experience. — Rufus Wainwright

I would love to have a number one hit. The truth is if I don't get one, I'll be fine, but at the same time, the truth is that I'm dying for one, as well. — Rufus Wainwright

When it came to using elements of your personal life in your work, my mother was the master, or the mistress. There were three or four songs she wrote about my father - songs about failed love. — Rufus Wainwright

My love of maple syrup. I've been known to knock back a can over a couple days: A swig here, a swig there, and next thing you know it's gone. It's a habit I have to stave off. I don't want to lose all my teeth. — Rufus Wainwright

What I love about my daughter is that she is going to definitely allow me and force me to change my life and slow down and make it more about the real things in the world. — Rufus Wainwright

I really need to know I may just never see you again, or might as well You took advantage of a world that loved you well I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down I'm so tired of you, America. — Rufus Wainwright

I love being not cool. — Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright Quotes About Life

I may not lead the most dramatic life, but in my brain it's 'War and Peace' everyday. — Rufus Wainwright

I have never cooked a meal in my life and always end up paying for dozens of people to eat with me. — Rufus Wainwright

Opera needs to be a total escape from real life. To relate to what we're going through today is fine and dandy, but it's really about being transported and completely swept away by a romantic notion. — Rufus Wainwright

I personally don’t have the ability to lie about my life, for better or for worse. — Rufus Wainwright

Why be in music, why write songs, if you can't use them to explore life or an idealized vision of life? — Rufus Wainwright

Certainly in terms of my life - anybody's life - you go through death, childbirth and marriage, glory and defeat, and so on. — Rufus Wainwright

My greatest experiences in the theatre and the most religious experiences in my life - of which going to the opera is one for me - have been with the Romantic composers' repertoire: it's Wagner, it's Strauss, Verdi, Puccini. That era gets me every time. — Rufus Wainwright

Life is the longest death in California. — Rufus Wainwright

There's prejudice everywhere. I don't think the music industry is as bad as the movie industry. But I have taken a few hits over the years for my sexuality, and for being honest about my life. In the end, it's the music that rules the roost. — Rufus Wainwright

Why be in music, why write songs, if you can't use them to explore life or an idealized vision of life? I believe a lot of our lives are spent asleep, and what I've been trying to do is hold on to those moments when a little spark cuts through the fog and nudges you. — Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright Quotes About Music

I am regarded as a usurper, as an imposter and dilettante, because I do technically come from the wrong side of the tracks in musical terms. — Rufus Wainwright

Musically I'm able to keep going, because it's not about money and it's not about success. It's a challenge. — Rufus Wainwright

I should write a musical. That is probably one of the final areas that I should pay attention to, because it does kind of involve everything. It's got theatre, it's got young, pretty people... And it's got money! — Rufus Wainwright

I don't know if it will be my big comeback, but I think it is a statement - that I am a self-sustaining, vibrant, long-term artist, and I'm not going away! And if you don't give me credit, then the musical gods will! — Rufus Wainwright

I'd be hanging out in my bathrobe all day, stinky, just writing, and my mom allowed me to do this-as long as I was writing songs. She said, 'As long as you're seriously working on music, I'll support you. Don't get a job, because if you work, it will crush you. — Rufus Wainwright

I was reared on folk music. — Rufus Wainwright

I'm a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. Millais, Edward Burne-Jones, and I realised recently that my music is Pre-Raphaelite in a certain way, in that it reinvents an older era and romanticises it, puts it in this gilded frame. — Rufus Wainwright

I definitely try to broaden the scope of music. I don't know if it's pop or classical or what, but I'm religiously challenging myself all the time, for better or for worse. — Rufus Wainwright

I am under no illusion that I will ever be the greatest opera composer in the world, with Wagner and Verdi and Strauss before me. I think my work could fit very nicely into musicals, though. — Rufus Wainwright

For better or worse, I've always been curious musically. Whether it's opera or Judy Garland or pop, I've deliberately sought those things out. I've never wanted to do the same things over and over. Some think I've accomplished what I set out to do, and others consider me a dilettante. — Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright Quotes About Older

It seems like the older I get, the more unreal the world becomes. — Rufus Wainwright

I think my imagination and my passions are still firing away, but it's really the body that starts to make up the rules. It's not a major problem; it's just when you get a little older you realize how much your body thanks you when you are good to it. — Rufus Wainwright

I'm very much a romantic. I'm highly attuned to an older sensibility, which I believe is alive and well. We're not that far ahead of the Romantic Age in society. — Rufus Wainwright

I definitely have a Luddite's approach to what's going on. I find that as I get older, I get stupider. — Rufus Wainwright

I've developed into quite a swan. I'm one of those people that will probably look better and better as I get older until I drop dead of beauty. — Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright Famous Quotes And Sayings

I'm definitely a fan of juxtaposition. Using the most beautiful line to say the most horrific thing - I think one of the main things in songwriting is definitely friction between the words and the melody. — Rufus Wainwright

You know the question: 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall?' Answer: 'Practise?' Well, in my case, I got there by not practising. I didn't finish my music degree. And when I got into the pop world, I decided not to conform because I figured that the point of being an artist was that you shouldn't be like anyone else. — Rufus Wainwright

The thing I hate most is false modesty. The artists who are, like, "Oh, you know, I'm really not that good. Oh, I can't believe I'm here." I find it vaguely sinister, even. — Rufus Wainwright

Premiering a new opera is probably one of the hardest things in the world to do, and opening nights of any opera are always pretty stressful. — Rufus Wainwright

All these poses of classical torture ruined my mind like a snake in the orchard. I did go from wanting to be someone, now I'm drunk and wearing flip-flops on Fifth Avenue. — Rufus Wainwright

Some people go to Berlin to get more cutting edge; I went and started wearing lederhosen and going to visit baroque palaces. — Rufus Wainwright

I'm not born again, I'm not Kabbalah, God forbid, but I did have an experience hitting 30 that I needed to lean on something that assured me that everything is going to be okay. I had to regain a lot of my belief in fairy tales, in happy endings. — Rufus Wainwright

The Germany I was enthused with was more old fashioned and kind of romantic. I just got there, and the next thing you know, I had this huge gilded album. It was kind of an amazing experience because I didn't intend it to be that way. — Rufus Wainwright

Being with the president’s daughter, no matter who the president is, you are connected to the most powerful political force on earth, and that’s scary. And when you mix crystal meth and alcohol with that, it’s…kind of exciting. A little too exciting. — Rufus Wainwright

When I wrote the opera, I made a deal with myself that for at least an hour a day I would work on it, even if it meant just sitting on my piano bench, staring into space and thinking about it. It's about keeping it regular, like your bowel movements - let's get real: it's your bodily artistic movements! It comes from the same place. — Rufus Wainwright

These are just the rules and regulations Of the birds, and the bees The earth, and the trees, Not to mention the gods, not to mention the gods. — Rufus Wainwright

I've developed a bit of a fascination with John Denver. I always thought he was kind of tacky and somewhat revolting and had a kind of simplistic weirdness, but on second listen, he actually did have an incredible voice, and the blatant naiveté of his work is straight-edge, in a way. — Rufus Wainwright

I don’t really have a relationship with the guitar; it’s like my slutty lover, whereas I’m married to the piano — Rufus Wainwright

I definitely have a Luddite's approach to what's going on. I find that as I get older, I get stupider. For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust. I've been hanging out a bit with Lou Reed, and he's the complete opposite. He's into technology and is kind of like a toddler, compared to me, who's like an old 19th-century widow or something. — Rufus Wainwright

My mother's songs are really turning out to be masterpieces. I have inherited this incredible legacy and am so fortunate to bathe in her sensibilities. It is tinged with tragedy. I'd much rather she was here in person, but there is still a positive force to come out of her death and that is having the gift of music that she gave. — Rufus Wainwright

I find so many songwriters today are missing an element ... either the production is amazing but the songs aren't, or it's the other way around. — Rufus Wainwright

Looking back, one of the things I love most about my mom was that she never, ever relented. She stuck to her guns right up until the end. She wasn't abusive, but she was never that thrilled that I was gay. — Rufus Wainwright

The mind has so many pictures Why can't I sleep with my eyes open? The mind has so many memories Can you remember what it looks like when I cry? I'm trying, trying to tell you All that I can in a sweet and velvet tongue But no words ever could sell you Sell you on me after all that I have done. — Rufus Wainwright

I'll be honest, I worry sometimes about what I've done. I have tied my whole person to my art and, whatever it takes to get that hook, I will go there and do it. — Rufus Wainwright

If I had had more of a strategic attitude towards how to reveal my sexuality, and if I'd even played with it a little more, I could have sold a lot more albums and been a lot more famous. — Rufus Wainwright

I strive for what you do find in Shakespeare's work - that there is a definite humanity and a definite character behind the writing in the sonnets, and it's very real because it's so deeply personal. I try to aspire to that in what I do. — Rufus Wainwright

When it comes to sitting down and composing, there is no hesitation, no concern, no critics breathing fire down my neck. For me, writing a song is the purest part of all. No one can mess with that. — Rufus Wainwright

My dad and I have always been somewhat competitive. — Rufus Wainwright

Arguably, the relationship between Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland is one of the great mother-daughter sagas of all time. Certainly, for certain people, and a lot of them, Liza is the bigger star. Liza is the more kind of viable legend, shall we say. Then there's the other camp, where Judy is the one. — Rufus Wainwright

You had to be an over-the-top, demanding, dramatic figure in order to progress as a woman in Europe over the last few hundred years. Now people say, "You're being such a prima donna," meaning you're being hard to deal with or crazy. It's a bit sexist. — Rufus Wainwright

To me, songs come of their own volition - and with an open-ended philosophy. — Rufus Wainwright

The operas I listen to aren't in English, and I want to listen to my opera after I'm done with it. I want to have the desire to play it on the stereo. To me, the language is part of the mystery. — Rufus Wainwright

I still believe that love is the most powerful force in the world, even though I am yet to experience it fully. — Rufus Wainwright

I've been thinking of trying my hand at rap. I've been recording snippets on my BlackBerry. — Rufus Wainwright

You get to a certain age, and you feel the need to reward yourself just for existing. — Rufus Wainwright

I bemoan the fact that all my famous friends have places in St. Bart's and I have to go to Montauk. — Rufus Wainwright

I wish I could just relax sometimes and make some money, but I always feel like I have to prove some kind of big, profound point. — Rufus Wainwright

I'm not a terrible smoker, actually. My major addiction, which is horrible, is straight boys. — Rufus Wainwright

I have managed to eke out a good and substantial existence. I'm not shoveling gold bricks or anything, but I do very, very well. — Rufus Wainwright

I have a three-year-old daughter, which makes me more environmentally conscious. For me, it's about the future. — Rufus Wainwright

I was keenly aware that I didn't want to draw on too many typically doomed aspects of the fated singer. Whether it's Judy Garland or Norma Desmond, there is this tragic quality to older women that one can revel in, and you want it to be more three-dimensional than that. So it was important for the character to be strong and resilient, because there are so many victims in opera. — Rufus Wainwright

I knew I was gay when I was around 13. There wasn't the internet, there weren't support groups, AIDS was everywhere. I mean, it was really dark. — Rufus Wainwright

But I want to deepen as an artist, and working with Shakespeare definitely points in that direction. — Rufus Wainwright

My mother had a lot of parties when I was a child. There'd always be a moment when she would place me on the upright piano and have me sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. — Rufus Wainwright

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered. — Rufus Wainwright

I've paid the price; I definitely have a reputation that precedes me, and there is a camp that plots my demise. But then again... it's funner that way. — Rufus Wainwright

Putting all of my time In learning to care And a bucket of rhymes I threw up somewhere Want a locket of who Made me lose my perfunctory view Of all that is around And of all that I do. — Rufus Wainwright

Well, my great lesson with that was I went to the same production twice - once completely high and once completely sober - and both times were equally wonderful. — Rufus Wainwright

Places that have experienced great defeat experience a kind of rebirth, which I think America has to do - unless we want to get more decrepit. I don't think we have to destroy the place totally. — Rufus Wainwright

My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it really. — Rufus Wainwright

The moment something happens to one you love, it's twenty times more intense. You experience pain and enlightenment on a much vaster scale. — Rufus Wainwright

I've always gravitated towards opera, and the Royal Opera House is quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth. — Rufus Wainwright

I very much faced my mother's death with hard, arduous and time-consuming labor. The more I would do, the less I would feel. — Rufus Wainwright

Somebody curse the light And take me far away from myself — Rufus Wainwright

New York is not the centre for American culture and art that it once was because of the forces of conservatism. Giuliani, capitalism - and then there was 9/11. I really believe that if I leave, it will suffer! Maybe that's why I love it here, because I feel wanted. — Rufus Wainwright

Madonna created a monster that sucks up souls. — Rufus Wainwright

I have a good face for what I do. — Rufus Wainwright

I like to try new things. — Rufus Wainwright

But I don't even think you hear me at all Under your medieval ceiling behind your biblical wall — Rufus Wainwright

I think my mother, more than anyone, knew the importance of inspiration. If it was occurring, you had to use it. — Rufus Wainwright

I'm 33 and in my "Jesus year," and I want it all right now. I want a perfect body. I want to have a perfect love affair. I want every member of my family to be healthy and happy. And I want the world to save itself and for America to realize that it has to give up its idea of being an empire. Wait until I hit 40; then it'll all come crumbling down. — Rufus Wainwright

One of the main destructive forces within our family has been these runaway egos. I think if you look at any show business family, that struggle exists. — Rufus Wainwright

I have this horrible, horrible habit of going on YouTube and checking out comments about what I do. — Rufus Wainwright

It's about how whenever I fall in love, I have these expectations of the experience being a perfect dream, which, of course, ruins it. I imagine cradling my lover's head in my lap in a cab in the middle of the night, and drinking champagne in an elegant hotel suite. But life's rarely like that, and I usually end up walking home by myself in the rain. — Rufus Wainwright

My cheeks explode when I smile. Thats why I have to look so nonplussed. — Rufus Wainwright

The song is about knowing the end result of every situation you're in, and being able to play it out in your mind and see it before it happens. It's about addiction, really, about knowing how it's all going to end up. In that sense, you're watching a movie of yourself all the time - and then you want out of that movie. — Rufus Wainwright

The pop world is popular, and it's about what the people want and connecting to the masses, whereas opera, although it was once popular - and I still believe it can be - it has become very elitist and intellectual, but that certainly doesn't sell tickets. It's a struggle, but I've always embraced struggle and thrived off of it, so it's the way my life needs to go. — Rufus Wainwright

I just think it's better to have ideas. I mean, you can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier, people die for them, people kill for them. — Rufus Wainwright

Unless I have my aunt or my boyfriend to take care of me, I'm a little pathetic. — Rufus Wainwright

And you will believe in love And all that it's supposed to be But just until the fish start to smell And you're struck down by a hammer. — Rufus Wainwright

I will take my coffee black / never snack / hang with the wolves who are sheepish. — Rufus Wainwright

I definitely was always expected and encouraged to be a songwriter from a very young age, ... But really it's because, as a child, I thought I was Judy Garland. And when I started out, I was a little nuts. I thought I was a classic, legendary superstar when only 10 people knew who I was. I feel in some ways that my confidence is misinterpreted as arrogance, which is understandable. But I've also always thought that false modesty is evil. — Rufus Wainwright

I'll always be a boulevardier. I have an extreme reverence and romantic longing for all that is decrepit and fatalistic. — Rufus Wainwright

I am ridiculously high-maintenance. — Rufus Wainwright

Yes, I'm a homosexual and I like to shock people with glamour. — Rufus Wainwright

In the present world, this technological, psychotic, politicised, nonsensical world, you have to believe that the good guys are going to win! That evil will be banished somehow! — Rufus Wainwright

Life Lessons by Rufus Wainwright

1. Rufus Wainwright's music teaches us to embrace our individuality and be unapologetic about who we are.
2. His music also encourages us to take risks and be creative, pushing the boundaries of what is expected.
3. Lastly, his work reminds us to be open to collaboration and new experiences, as these can lead to unexpected and beautiful results.