Olly Alexander

“I don't know what's wrong with me - I don't know why I only get picked to play strange characters!”

“I've mostly worked in weird films playing weird characters, probably because I'm a weird person.”

“Personally, I've always been ashamed of my body and I've hated being so skinny - I had an eating disorder for so long.”

“I think the word 'twink' is pejorative. There's something endemic about the gay community where we praise masculinity more than anything else.”

“We are traumatized by growing up in a world that doesn't really accept us. Obviously, we've made great leaps and bounds, but I think there's a tendency to force a narrative onto queer people that once you come out... you have to be really happy and really successful and proud all the time.”

“I love being alone.”

“The word queer first started being used in the late 1980s by members of the community who wanted to reclaim something negative and turn it into a positive. It's still a painful word for some, and lots of people don't identify with it. But for me it's a helpful and empowering term that unifies an ever-growing community.”

“The majority of the film industry is, like, obsessed with a ridiculous gender binary and keeping with this stupid social binary. Like, who cares?”

“It's like any other part of your body - your mental health gets sick, and it needs treatment.”

“We can't police the way people express their sexuality.”

“I grew up loving artists like the Spice Girls and Britney Spears - artists who seemed to live this fantasy lifestyle, and I remember always wanting to join these fantasy people in that world.”

“Justin Tranter is an incredible queer voice in pop music and he's writing for Justin Bieber: it's genius.”

“When I go on stage and perform, I'm an extreme version of myself.”

“Words are important. They do matter.”

“The first artist I really loved was Stevie Wonder. That opened the doors to other soul singers like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.”

“I always had really, really bad nightmares, like night terrors or whatever they're called. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to move... I'd hallucinate and have really scary visions and dreams, so I wouldn't want to sleep.”

“My mum listened to stuff like Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos, but she also listened to a lot of '80s stuff like Heart. I still quite like Heart.”

“I love TLC and Aaliyah and all those early-millennial R&B singers.”

“Pop music has a pretty good track record of embracing queer culture.”

“With anxiety and depression, what's been most helpful to me has been learning a toolbox - a set of skills I can use when I'm in periods of low mood or feel an anxiety attack coming on. When Years & Years took off it felt like I needed that toolbox really quickly.”