A biography for Rufus Wainwrighthasn’t been written yet.
“I wish I could just relax sometimes and make some money, but I always feel like I have to prove some kind of big, profound point.”
“My mother's songs are really turning out to be masterpieces. I have inherited this incredible legacy and am so fortunate to bathe in her sensibilities. It is tinged with tragedy. I'd much rather she was here in person, but there is still a positive force to come out of her death and that is having the gift of music that she gave.”
“I do not consider myself a guitar player. My father is a guitar player - I'm not.”
“I would love to have a number one hit. The truth is if I don't get one, I'll be fine, but at the same time, the truth is that I'm dying for one, as well.”
“I'll be honest, I worry sometimes about what I've done. I have tied my whole person to my art and, whatever it takes to get that hook, I will go there and do it.”
“I still believe that love is the most powerful force in the world, even though I am yet to experience it fully.”
“I'm a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. Millais, Edward Burne-Jones, and I realised recently that my music is Pre-Raphaelite in a certain way, in that it reinvents an older era and romanticises it, puts it in this gilded frame.”
“I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.”
“Places that have experienced great defeat experience a kind of rebirth, which I think America has to do - unless we want to get more decrepit. I don't think we have to destroy the place totally.”
“Being uncool is being pretty much the coolest you can be.”
“I definitely consider 'Poses' - the whole album in fact - to be kind of a miracle. Like the last breath of that moment when decadence is healthy, 'Poses' encapsulates that feeling. It's a kind of song and a kind of album that I'll never be able to repeat.”
“As an artist, you put so much into what you do and it can all be torn down in a nanosecond.”
“Crazy as it sounds, I'm a believer in destiny and serendipity, and I have had cosmic experiences all my life. Something told me I was meant for greater stuff. And look, I've had a baby! And I've written an opera!”
“In retrospect, I'm really shocked at how far I put my heart out there on the line with 'Prima Donna'. I seem to have this knack for being able to accomplish that.”
“Looking back, one of the things I love most about my mom was that she never, ever relented. She stuck to her guns right up until the end. She wasn't abusive, but she was never that thrilled that I was gay.”
“I think my mother, more than anyone, knew the importance of inspiration. If it was occurring, you had to use it.”
“New York is not the centre for American culture and art that it once was because of the forces of conservatism. Giuliani, capitalism - and then there was 9/11. I really believe that if I leave, it will suffer! Maybe that's why I love it here, because I feel wanted.”
“Life is a game and true love is a trophy.”
“The moment something happens to one you love, it's twenty times more intense. You experience pain and enlightenment on a much vaster scale.”
“Once illness strikes, you realize there's not a lot of time for you to do what you really need to do. And there's no time like the present.”