I feel threatened, and sometimes it makes me angry because I can't do anything about that, there's just too many issues. But in a way I think my work is meant to get people out of that.

My music is L-O-V-E because it's a gift, and you only give something when you feel it deeply.

Elvis Presley is my spiritual father, and as you may know Maria Callas is my spiritual mother.

It is a very personal thing to me, because this is my basic voice, this is where I come from, and it is one of the oldest voice styles in human history.

Every time I bought a Rock and Roll record, I bought a classical record at the same time. I like each as well as the other.

I approach everything as an absolute outsider. It is the only way I can break so many rules.

I am singing in an operatic voice for the public, to bring something more to Rock and Roll. Because in a Rock and Roll performance, the singer talks to the public whereas in Opera the singer only talks to a character, inside a story. The public sees this as a picture, I want to transport this picture into the room where the public is.

A man without makeup is like a cake without icing.

Well, you know, I am in the business and I like to promote myself.

People do accuse me of being just decorative or an escapist - well I am. That's what I do. I am other things as well. I transcend the song and give it a different meaning.

I'm from Planet Nomi where I wear black lipstick so you can see my lips and what I am doing with them.

I did every thing, even dirty jobs like dishwashing or delivery boy for a grocer.

I think it is nice to be a little magical. Today we need this. All that we can read in fairy tales or in books. I think somewhere it is all around us. But nowadays we can think that this magic has been killed and I am try to make it survive as long as possible.

What makes life complicated is the things that are on me and it is very hard to keep things simple. I see it as I am complicated and there is innocence to this.

Sometimes I sing very honestly, really as moving as possible.

I see myself as universal, not as a German, American, French or whatever, because we all live on this planet. We're all living on the earth.