Boy George Quotes - Page 3

Leigh [Bowery] obviously loved having me in the club because I would attract media, and he loved and lived for his column inches.

You find out so many interesting things when you're not on drugs.

I'm being honest, I say what I think.

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.

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?

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.

I'm always being inspired .

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.

It's [Jail's] like being at school. Except you can't leave.

I think we grow into ourselves. And unfortunately we do it in the spotlight, so when we make mistakes, everybody knows about it.

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.

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 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.

The band never actually split up - we just stopped speaking to each other and went our own separate ways.

I think for me one of the big things was realizing that being Boy George is my job. It's what I do.

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.

Go home. Let me do my community service.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

She's probably in denial that she's a great big ball of insecurity and I'm quite well aware that I am one.

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.