George Michael Quotes
Singer
I have never felt any ethnic connection between the Greeks and me other than how hairy I am.
Anybody who fights for human rights or to make this world a better place. Nurses, doctors, teachers: these are the people who deserve the credit these days.
I still believe that music is one of the greatest gifts that God gave to man.
In the years when HIV was a killer, any parent of an openly gay person was terrified. I knew my mother well enough that she would spend every day praying that I didn't come across that virus. She'd have worried like that.
You'll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.
I have never thought about my sexuality being right or wrong. To me it has always been a case of finding the right person.
There are so many things and so many aspects to gay life that I've discovered and so many things to write about. I have a new life, and I have a new take on dance music because of that life.
I had very little fear about it, but basically, my straight friends talked me out of it. I think they thought as I was bisexual, there was no need to. But it's amazing how much more complicated it became because I didn't come out in the early days. I often wonder if my career would have taken a different path if I had.
There's no comfort in the truth, pain is all you'll find.
The truth is my love life has been a lot more turbulent than I have let on.
Celebrity and secrets don't go together. The bastards will get you in the end.
I have more love, success, and security than I could ever dream of.
My American gay audience have continued to dance and sing to the music I make in a way that straight Americans haven't. I am grateful to them for that.
I never really told my parents that I wanted to be a pop star or anything. They just knew that I was totally obsessed with music. Funnily enough, my father always used to say that he didn't think I could sing.
It takes so much strength to say to your ego, 'You know what? You're going to keep me lonely, so I have to ignore you.'
I don't consider Americans bullies, but I do consider the American government bullying.
The '90s were a bit of a disaster for me in so many ways. On a personal level, I don't think I could have toured. Also, I had some physical problems with my back that are now sorted and I just wasn't in the right state of mind.
I spent years growing up being told what my sexuality was.
I've achieved what every artist wants, which is that some of their work will outlive them.
I have the audience I deserve. Or at least I have the audience that represents the kind of people that I like.
I define my sexuality in terms of the people that I love.
I am really not interested or excited by repeating former successes.
I think the media is a real demon.
It's almost required with major artists that there's some duality. And I've got duality everywhere.
Not many people are really that meticulous with what they do, I suppose, but I'm just a control freak and terribly afraid of failure or regret. I work very hard on these things.
If you don't feel you're reaching something new, then don't do it.
I am a political person, though not with a big P.
I don't want to look at other people my age in leather. Why would I put it on?
I'm surprised that I've survived my own dysfunction, really.
Is my body a temple, or is my life a temple? I'm definitely in the latter category, and I think my life has been better since thinking that way.
My ego is sated.
I would advise any gay person that being out in the real sense can never happen too soon.
It's strange. At some point in your career, the situation between yourself and the camera reverses. For a certain number of years, you court it and you need it, but ultimately, it needs you more, and it's a bit like a relationship. The minute that happens, it turns you off... and it does feel like it is taking something from you.
It's important to me that I should be free to express myself.
I've never done anything so political before. I've spent years shouting my mouth off about serious issues over dinner tables but never really had the confidence to express my views in a song.
I'd like to say things are bound to get better, but I don't really believe it.
I realised those things my ego needed - fame and success - were going to make me terribly unhappy. So I wrenched myself away from that. I had to. I had to walk away from America and say goodbye to the biggest part of my career because I knew, otherwise, my demons would get the better of me.
I have no belief in The Bible or religion, but I think Armageddon was a lucky guess. I honestly think it's going to happen.
My depression at the end of Wham! was because I was beginning to realise I was gay, not bi.
The media has affected everybody's consciousness much more than most people will admit.
I know I have a very self-destructive tendency since my mother died, I have got to be honest.
I went to prison, I paid my bill.
I really have no plans for any kind of career in TV or anything, but if I wanted to become good at it, I could. But I don't really think it's in the cards.
In terms of my work, I've never been reticent in terms of defining my sexuality. I write about my life.
I write about my life.
I'm not anti-American. I've lived with Kenny, a Texan, for six years.
I know that I sound self-satisfied, and I know that I've got an ego, but I don't have an ego problem.
I don't really have any traits that I deplore. I get annoyed with myself sometimes, but that's about it.
I'm 10-12 years into life as an out gay man, and I'm a different person. I think there are things about my journey that might be useful to other people, and coming up with a hit record on its own doesn't seem to be enough anymore.
I used to believe that George Michael was a total actor. It was self-defeating, because it made me also feel fraudulent.
No one wants to look wholesome at 21!
English people have seen me get through scandals.
Stars are almost always people that want to make up for their own weaknesses by being loved by the public and I'm no exception to that.
Your political system is actually too democratic. The fact that Americans vote on every bill and proposition can prolong bigotry indefinitely, especially where it is aimed at minority groups.
It's absolutely essential that we have the same safeguards that straight couples do. But I want more than a 50 percent chance of success. I don't want to emulate that.
I left school at 17 and was a star by the time I was 18 - in certain parts of the world anyway.
If someone really wants to hurt you, they'll find a way whatever. I don't want to live my life worrying about it.
I don't really think that there is anyone in the modern pop business who I feel I want to spar with.
I think for most of us, our biggest frailties are sexual.
I try very hard to thank my lucky stars and keep it all in proportion and perspective, but it can be very tiring having a smiley face all day.
I'm the luckiest writer on earth.
I had been obsessed with insects and creepy-crawlies: I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and go out into this field behind our garden and collect insects before everyone else got up, and suddenly, all I wanted to know about was music. It just seemed a very, very strange thing.
I've been very well remunerated for my talents over the years so I really don't need the public's money.
I've written a whole body of work that I'm incredibly proud of.
If I can just live further from the spotlight I think that'll be better for all really.
With pop stars or film stars, we become the object of people's self-definition, as well as the object of sexual definition.
I want to make a pop album - something more upbeat than my stuff was in the '90s.
Of course, I want to sell this record - there's no point making it otherwise.
Everything was going my way. I was happily marching into the history books. Then it all just fell apart.
You can't imagine what it's like playing to people who have been loyal to you for 25 years and haven't seen you for 15.
It's only when the kids are in their late twenties that families really face up to what they are.
I don't have joy in watching myself, whereas, actually, I quite like listening to my own music.
The fact I had my father as an adversary was such a powerful tool to work with. I subconsciously fought him to the degree that I drove me to be one of the most successful musician in the world.
I never minded being thought of as a pop star. People have always thought I wanted to be seen as a serious musician, but I didn't, I just wanted people to know that I was absolutely serious about pop music.
I had to walk away from America, and say goodbye to the biggest part of my career, because I knew otherwise my demons would get the better of me.
I have got other interests than just making music. I would like to follow those interests through.
I'm not a novelty act from the '80s in most parts of the world.
I mean, I've done different things at different times that I shouldn't have done, once or twice, you know.
I watch people who are not driven by creativity any more, and I think how dull it must be to produce the same kind of thing. If you don't feel you're reaching something new, then don't do it.
I'm just not security-minded.
I went through a long period where I was afraid of doing things I wanted to do, and you get your courage back, which is what's important.
There is no such thing as a reluctant star.
I'm lucky to be alive.
I have to believe that somebody up there thinks I've still got some work to do.
Because of the media, the way the world is perceived is as a place where resources and time are running out. We're taught that you have to grab what you can before it's gone. It's almost as if there isn't time for compassion.
I've always been the porky boy in my head.
I do want people to know that the songs that I wrote when I was with women were really about women. And the songs that I've written since have been fairly obvious about men.
I find it too terrifying to go out in L.A.
Even though it's become a really cliched thing to see musicians working for charity, it's still effective and it still has to be done.
I can't bear Catholicism.
Deep down, my ego always thought that I would outlast a lot of people that I was competing against.
The first sign of real obsession with music was with an old wind-up gramophone that mum had thrown out into the garage. My parents gave me three old 45s - two Supremes records and one Tom Jones record - and I used to come home from school literally every day, go out to the garage, wind this thing up, and play them.
I was brought up when media still kept totally away from violence when it came to children. I don't think it would have made me scared of violence, but I find it repulsive.
You can't have a child just to keep a relationship together, can you?
A lot of people like me, who've been around for years and years and years, only really lose it in their forties and fifties.
Apart from some of the videos and haircuts, I don't think I've made any wrong moves, ha ha!
I owe my mother who I am, and my father my drive.
I spent the first half of my career being accused of being gay when I hadn't had anything like a gay relationship.
There are things about my mum that I only realised later, things that make me admire her.
In the very early days of Wham! the attention felt great, but I do wonder how much freedom I gave away by trying to become something I wasn't.