Pete Burns

“I fight for the right to be an individual. I have to be meself.”

“There's not a part of me, apart from the soles of my feet, which has not had work done.”

“I collect items like Elvis Presley clock radios and '50s memorabilia. It inspires a lot of my imagery. I like tasteful trash.”

“You shouldn't inflict yourself on the public when your fifteen minutes is up.”

“What I'm trying to achieve with my surgery is my own personal satisfaction. It's narcissism.”

“I'm not really the sort to reflect or look forward. I prefer concentrating on the now.”

“On reflection, I think the 1980s were a dreadful, abysmal time.”

“I don't wanna look like a 65-year-old geezer, you know, and I can't really see it happening.”

“The idea of travelling all over the world singing the same songs sounds like hell. How people like Tina Turner still do it with enthusiasm is beyond me.”

“There was one point where my mother was dying of lung cancer, and a journalist dressed up as a nurse and got in the house to get a picture of her, dying of lung cancer and stuff like that, and then you realise the fame's not all it's cracked up to be.”

“From a child, I knew I didn't have the face I wanted to have. My mother was a baroness. She was from Berlin; she was a silent movie actress and friends with Marlene Dietrich. So she knew all about film make-up and prosthetics and stuff like that and what they used to do in those days. And she taught me all that as a child.”

“I was brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity.”

“If people don't think I can fall into what the norm is, that's their problem and not mine. I'm not the norm; I'm not deluded.”

“Over the years, I've had to learn how to deal with people who refuse to take me seriously. That's where I learnt the blunt side of my character.”

“I never wanted credit for being a wonderful person or a great human being or looking peculiar. I just wanted credit for the music.”

“How did I write 'Spin Me?' I listened to Luther Vandross's 'I Wanted Your Love.'”

“I've never had my heart broken.”

“What a lot of people don't realise about me is that I have no idea what's going on in the media. I don't pay any attention to it, as I consider it mind pollution. The last time I touched a computer was in 2001, and my phone is too old to use the Internet. I just don't enter into it at all on any level.”

“You'd never catch me dead in a pair of fishnets! For one thing, they are not practical. And for another thing, it's just like a tacky drag queen.”

“It was a lovely feeling, dying. I can remember being in the hospital, all wired up to tubes and thinking, 'If only you'd take these tubes out, it feels so nice.' It felt so - it felt like being in a bath of velvet. It was such a nice feeling. Everything felt so soft and floppy, and I wanted to go.”