Laura Jane Grace

“Manic depression in general is something that runs in my family, and it's something that I battle with.”

“I sleep with a notebook next to me, and most nights I sleep with my guitar next to me.”

“I turned to punk because I didn't fit in anywhere else.”

“I grew up in Italy, so for me, Naples pizza is the only type of pizza that there really is.”

“I had some real health complications with my HRT - hormone replacement therapy.”

“Every musician out there wants to be judged on the merit of their songwriting, the merit of their performing abilities.”

“Any way that I can use my career or my platform to push along transgender visibility in the mainstream and society serves me on a personal level in that it will make day-to-day existence when I'm not doing this that much easier.”

“What people don't realize when they talk about our lineup changes is that the original Against Me! broke up in 2001. It never recorded a full-length record.”

“I dealt with depression for my whole life. That's not something that was caused by being trans.”

“Most people I know stopped talking to me after I came out.”

“Musicians are kind of like pirates, you know? You have to be free to follow whatever your muse is, or wherever life is pulling you - especially if you aren't in, like, U2, and making millions and millions of dollars.”

“A lot of what keeps me going is wanting to be better, thinking I'm not good enough.”

“I feel self-conscious for even having met so many other band people and artists, I don't want to be that artist that is only able to talk about themselves and their own band. I don't want to be that person. I'd rather just be quiet than be that person.”

“Any doctor will tell you a great treatment for depression is exercise, physical exertion, that it really ups the dopamine in your brain, so that's what a show is. I play a show and that's a high for me; I can ride that.”

“I'm a musician and I listen to music all the time. If there's something out there where someone would tell me that I should listen to, I would listen to it.”

“I want to write songs, and I would like to play and sing them. I'm not a politician; I'm not a comedian. I hate coming up with bits to do between songs.”

“I was always taught by punk to think for yourself and to question authority. That's what I've always tried to do.”

“It's not like I came out in 'Rolling Stone' and all of a sudden I had a closet full of all the clothes I want.”

“Trans people should be able to fall in love and sing love songs too, and have that be just as valid. You turn on the radio and every other song is some guy singing about some girl who broke his heart, or vice versa. And there's not a lot of trans representation with that.”

“I had gone from being married with a kid, two cars, garage, nice house in a nice neighborhood to all of it gone.”