A biography for John Cameron Mitchellhasn’t been written yet.
“I studied meditation, knowing it would be a huge new calming skill.”
“I remember being afraid of doing drag when I was younger because I didn't really like my feminine side - most gay guys at some point are told that that's the worst part of you, so that becomes a negative thing.”
“Neil Patrick Harris is a superman of entertainment.”
“You can make serious pop, you know? There was a time when the best movies were the most popular, and I keep thinking that can happen again.”
“If I wanted to make a lot of money with 'Hedwig,' I could have spent all my time on it. But that's boring.”
“We're all weirdly single, middle-aged women with too much money who look to fill the void with too much shopping.”
“I never even had a MySpace.”
“I actually came out the year that AIDS hit the front pages. So there was this mixed feeling about it - excitement that life's finally begun, but it was completely tied up with mortality and danger and politics.”
“'Hedwig' was pretty much all the things I wanted to do that other people said I probably shouldn't do: drag, punk rock, stand-up comedy... You know, combine them all in a thing that's supremely uncommercial from the objective point of view.”
“Growing up, it was uncool to admit that your family had any money. And then, instantly, money was cool. In Reagan's parlance, it was about freedom of the individual, which was freedom to be greedy... individual versus society. There was a weird seduction in that, which I still feel.”
“I realized that theater was the perfect thing for me, in short bursts of intense community building.”
“I think as far as themes, 'Hedwig' is about what music meant to you as a kid and how rock n' roll can save you; that is definitely part of it.”
“I've obviously always been aware of actor-oriented films, being an actor. Altman and Cassavetes were really strong. And then I realized their structures were quite fascinating, too.”
“I have a weird propensity to know what's going to happen in the future.”
“I don't regret anything, because I feel better every year, and if I'd done something different, maybe I wouldn't. I'm more of a whole person, the older I get.”
“There's something cool about being a stealth classic.”
“I really want as many people as possible to relate to something, without compromising or dumbing down.”
“Coming out as a gay man, it was very much about finding my own identity and dealing with labeling.”
“I come from the theater, and there is a real collaborative history there.”
“I think things are dishonest if they're not aware of sadness.”