Wainwright Quotes & Sayings

Where did you learn to do that?"
"Los Angeles High School of Performing Arts," I said. "They taught me how to open my throat to sing. Then Kevin Wainwright taught me how to put his dick down it."
He laughed. "I'd like to thank LA Unified and Kevin Whatever for this moment. — C.D. Reiss

Introducing a great artist, Alexander Wainwright in THe Fate of Pryde.

In his landscapes, Alex expresses the totality of everything in the universe. At the same time, within each leaf, each drop of water or human hair, he conveys a light or glow, which seems to come - how shall I put this - from another dimension. And each brushstroke contains every ounce of his own life and vitality.

From The Fate of Pryde, the second in The Trilogy of Remembrance.

Enter the giveaway to win one of ten personalized, autographed copies of this novel starting July 31st to August 31st. You can sample the first fifty pages of it at my page. — Mary E. Martin

I don't know if it will be my big comeback, but I think it is a statement - that I am a self-sustaining, vibrant, long-term artist, and I'm not going away! And if you don't give me credit, then the musical gods will! — Rufus Wainwright

I am always writing; if you want to survive in this business, you need to keep working, keep creating and never stop the output. — Rufus Wainwright

Some people go to Berlin to get more cutting edge; I went and started wearing lederhosen and going to visit baroque palaces. — Rufus Wainwright

The operas I listen to aren't in English, and I want to listen to my opera after I'm done with it. I want to have the desire to play it on the stereo. To me, the language is part of the mystery. — Rufus Wainwright

I have an ounce of Lady Gaga's full-bodied ambition. — Rufus Wainwright

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. — Rufus Wainwright

The artist who gave me the most inspiration and direction, especially as a singer - and I absolutely consider myself a singer, 100 percent - is Nina Simone. She's my ultimate pianist-singer-type person. — Rufus Wainwright

Displaying a bland, even an eerie, disregard for what appeared to be the facts of the situation, he fell back on an old habit of looking ahead to the next defeat. — Loudon Wainwright III

Well, my great lesson with that was I went to the same production twice - once completely high and once completely sober - and both times were equally wonderful. — Rufus Wainwright

I'm very much a romantic. I'm highly attuned to an older sensibility, which I believe is alive and well. We're not that far ahead of the Romantic Age in society. — Rufus Wainwright

I am under no illusion that I will ever be the greatest opera composer in the world, with Wagner and Verdi and Strauss before me. I think my work could fit very nicely into musicals, though. — Rufus Wainwright

I think I'm great. I mean, I might as well come out and say it. Like most people, I have an ego and I'm in show business, so you have to have kind of a healthy, conflagrated ego to a degree. On the other hand, I'm consumed, like a lot of people, with self-doubt and loathing and guilt. — Loudon Wainwright III

I might not be beautiful, but I'm very interesting! — Martha Wainwright

I have learned to write about things that are personal without objectifying anybody or anything, and that's been an important lesson for me. It's useful not to dump on people while simultaneously expressing a truth or a feeling if it's necessary, without diluting the intensity of the lyric. — Martha Wainwright

When I was young, my mother [folk singer Kate McGarrigle] brought home this recording of Verdi's Requiem and we listened to it from top to bottom. By the end of it, I was a completely different person. It was literally a requiem mass for my former self. I was about 12 or 13. The Requiem just totally hooked into what I was going through emotionally - discovering my sexuality right at the time when AIDS was devastating my community and dealing with intense parental situations. — Rufus Wainwright

The fleeting hour of life of those who love the hills is quickly spent, but the hills are eternal. Always there will be the lonely ridge, the dancing beck, the silent forest; always there will be the exhilaration of the summits. These are for the seeking, and those who seek and find while there is still time will be blessed both in mind and body. — Alfred Wainwright

My love of maple syrup. I've been known to knock back a can over a couple days: A swig here, a swig there, and next thing you know it's gone. It's a habit I have to stave off. I don't want to lose all my teeth. — Rufus Wainwright

I've always gravitated towards opera, and the Royal Opera House is quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth. — Rufus Wainwright

I was a smoker for years. Occasionally I slip and have a cigarette. Remarkably, my voice has held up. I'm grateful, obviously. But I don't gargle with honey and ground-up bird eggs. I have no secrets. — Loudon Wainwright III

Doomsday is quite within our reach, if we will only stretch for it. — Loudon Wainwright III

You get to a certain age, and you feel the need to reward yourself just for existing. — Rufus Wainwright

In the music business, to survive for so long, you have to be able to cut off from your emotions sometimes. And being a father, you're faced with that situation. I know that my father was, with me. I understand why he had to be distant, because to rip yourself away, time after time, is almost more devastating. — Rufus Wainwright

I'm definitely a fan of juxtaposition. Using the most beautiful line to say the most horrific thing - I think one of the main things in songwriting is definitely friction between the words and the melody. — Rufus Wainwright

What follows is the sum and substance of a remarkable year in a great artist's life -
Alexander Wainwright. He was at the pinnacle of his career when his art took a strange turn and I began to fear he had become possessed by some devil. But I was only beginning to understand the power of his passionate and hungry spirit, which nearly devoured him in his search for his new art - and his new life.

James Helmsworth, [art dealer for Alexander Wainwright] in The Drawing Lesson.

Enter for the giveaway of ten autographed copies of The Drawing Lesson, the first in The Trilogy of Remembrance starting on July 31st until August 31st, 2014. — Mary E. Martin

I guess I can be surprised I'm alive. I'm taking a little better care of myself than when I was a young person. My father died when he was 63. My mother made it to 74. My grandparents, God, they were dropping like flies. — Loudon Wainwright III

I don't claim to be a particularly good father. I'm flawed, let's say. I've certainly been affected by the experience of having kids ... trying to be a father, at least. It's an amazing process. It's like songwriting: it's a complete mystery to me. I don't understand it - but I've certainly written about it. — Loudon Wainwright III

If you're 28 and singing about being over the hill, you're pretending. When you're 67 and singing about it, you know what you're talking about. — Loudon Wainwright III

I really want to work with Rufus Wainwright. Michael Stipe from R.E.M. I would love to work with Kanye West. — Rico Love

I think I'm the oldest new Bob Dylan around. I predate Bruce Springsteen, Steve Forbat and John Prine. I was probably the first of the new Bob Dylans. — Loudon Wainwright III

There's prejudice everywhere. I don't think the music industry is as bad as the movie industry. But I have taken a few hits over the years for my sexuality, and for being honest about my life. In the end, it's the music that rules the roost. — Rufus Wainwright

I don't think of myself as a folk singer per se, but I really like blues and string-band music. When I started listening to records when I was a teenager, the folk boom was going on. — Loudon Wainwright III

When it came to using elements of your personal life in your work, my mother was the master, or the mistress. There were three or four songs she wrote about my father - songs about failed love. — Rufus Wainwright

I had a hip replacement a couple of years ago. I have a song about that. And why wouldn't you? It strikes me that that was a huge event. It's kind of funny and horrible and interesting, so why wouldn't one write about that? — Loudon Wainwright III

I went whenever I could, and always my eyes lifted to the hills. I was to find a spiritual and physical satisfaction in climbing mountains and a tranquil mind upon reaching their summits, as though I had escaped from the disappointments and unkindness of life and emerged above them into a new world, a better world. — Alfred Wainwright

I have this horrible, horrible habit of going on YouTube and checking out comments about what I do. — Rufus Wainwright

I really do fear that I'm dying I really do fear that I'm dead I saw it in your eyes what I'm looking for I saw it in your eyes what will make me live. — Rufus Wainwright

I always seem to write personal songs; that's always been my go-to thing, to write about what I'm experiencing. — Martha Wainwright

I like to think of myself as a combination of Sid Vicious and Virgil Thompson — Rufus Wainwright

When you have a song on the radio your career and your life changes maybe for the better and maybe for the not so good ... depending on how it's going that day. — Loudon Wainwright III

The mind has so many pictures Why can't I sleep with my eyes open? The mind has so many memories Can you remember what it looks like when I cry? I'm trying, trying to tell you All that I can in a sweet and velvet tongue But no words ever could sell you Sell you on me after all that I have done. — Rufus Wainwright

The worst mistake I ever made has become the best thing I ever did.

- Darius Wainwright — Jayne Fresina

Growing up, for years and years I had no idea what the plots of operas were, and that's part of what fascinated me - I could make them up and learn bits and pieces of what was going on over time. There's something about it being always a step away that makes it more fun to chase. — Rufus Wainwright

You had to be an over-the-top, demanding, dramatic figure in order to progress as a woman in Europe over the last few hundred years. Now people say, "You're being such a prima donna," meaning you're being hard to deal with or crazy. It's a bit sexist. — Rufus Wainwright

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. — Rufus Wainwright

I've always had a tendency to push the envelope as far as it can go without hurting someone's feelings. — Martha Wainwright

The big things in the average person's life are the romances that they have - and then the destruction and loss of them. Parents, siblings, children, the death of parents, family tension ... these are monumental things. They struck me as being interesting to write about. I didn't have a very exotic life, but all this stuff happened to me. — Loudon Wainwright III

I have a lot of advantages: I'm not addicted to horrifying pills. I also have surrounded myself with far more caring and upright individuals. And I wasn't abused as a child, so I'm doing okay! — Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright is my go-to for any kind of emotion. He's got songs for all of it. — Drake Bell

I definitely was always expected and encouraged to be a songwriter from a very young age, ... But really it's because, as a child, I thought I was Judy Garland. And when I started out, I was a little nuts. I thought I was a classic, legendary superstar when only 10 people knew who I was. I feel in some ways that my confidence is misinterpreted as arrogance, which is understandable. But I've also always thought that false modesty is evil. — Rufus Wainwright

Adversity is only yet another means to remind us of 'How Truly Awsome We All Are'! — W.O. Wainwright

There is actually a great book called Prima Donna by Rupert -Christiansen that deconstructs the myth. In fact, many of the women who were prima donnas were feminists and incredible forces for their time. — Rufus Wainwright

I love being not cool. — Rufus Wainwright

Somebody curse the light And take me far away from myself — Rufus Wainwright

Writing an opera and premiering in England, you could say I was going right into the eye of the storm and I came out successfully. A little tattered and bruised, but so what, I made it. — Rufus Wainwright

You have to be willing to give a lot to be in a relationship with me because a lot of the time it's about me. — Martha Wainwright

I've never really suffered complete and utter writer's block, really. I equate it with sex: in the beginning of my career, I was writing five songs a week; now, I occasionally write a song. But it's an exciting moment when it happens! — Loudon Wainwright III

I've been writing about growing old for some time, really from the beginning of my career. It's something I'm apparently hung up about and now that I am old, hopefully I speak about it with some authority. — Loudon Wainwright III

I don't like talking about music. — Martha Wainwright

I want to carve out a serious period of time to focus on the next opera without any distractions. And to do that you need money. — Rufus Wainwright

The song is about knowing the end result of every situation you're in, and being able to play it out in your mind and see it before it happens. It's about addiction, really, about knowing how it's all going to end up. In that sense, you're watching a movie of yourself all the time - and then you want out of that movie. — Rufus Wainwright

Faith is a bluebird you see from afar, it's for real and as sure as the first evening star. You can't touch it or buy it or wrap it up tight, but it's there all the same, making things turn out right. — Rufus Wainwright

I've had my ups and downs, and I definitely have a sense - in America, especially - that once you've made your mark and gotten your Rolling Stone piece and your Grammy nomination, that they're on to the next piece of meat, and they don't necessarily like to follow the twists and turns of an artistic career. — Rufus Wainwright

I've written songs for Shirley Bassey, Marianne Faithfull, and Linda Thompson. I sort of focus on these wonderful, aging divas. But maybe that's because I think I'm Christina Aguilera. — Rufus Wainwright

I like to try new things. — Rufus Wainwright

Every video I do is over budget by the time I walk on set. I am massively extravagant in my personal habits. — Rufus Wainwright

I would love to play with Rufus Wainwright. He's one of my favorite songwriters. — Sydney Wayser

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! — Rufus Wainwright

I have managed to eke out a good and substantial existence. I'm not shoveling gold bricks or anything, but I do very, very well. — Rufus Wainwright

I'll always be a boulevardier. I have an extreme reverence and romantic longing for all that is decrepit and fatalistic. — Rufus Wainwright

I personally don't have the ability to lie about my life, for better or for worse. — Rufus Wainwright

Wouldn't Ponochio II be a great musical, now that he has to face the real world and get a wife ... job. Now he wants to be a toy again. — Rufus Wainwright

I don't want to hold you and feel so helpless I don't want to smell you and lose my senses And smile in slow motion With eyes in love. — Rufus Wainwright

All humans realize they are loved when witnessing the dawn; early morning is the triumph of good over evil. Absolved by light we decide to go on. — Rufus Wainwright

I've learnt to hide my tears on stage. They make people uncomfortable. — Martha Wainwright

I definitely try to broaden the scope of music. I don't know if it's pop or classical or what, but I'm religiously challenging myself all the time, for better or for worse. — Rufus Wainwright

Who was that fatman buried in your place? Just another imitator, plastic surgeons did his face. — Loudon Wainwright III

The more hedonistic you were, the better ... I very much subscribed to that as a young artist. — Rufus Wainwright

I strive for what you do find in Shakespeare's work - that there is a definite humanity and a definite character behind the writing in the sonnets, and it's very real because it's so deeply personal. I try to aspire to that in what I do. — Rufus Wainwright

Geoff Muldaur was and is one of my musical heroes. When I listen to him sing and play, I can hear the coal mine, the cotton field, and last, but certainly foremost, the boy's boarding school. — Loudon Wainwright III

Everything I do, I feel is genius. Whether it is or it isn't. — Rufus Wainwright

I bemoan the fact that all my famous friends have places in St. Bart's and I have to go to Montauk. — Rufus Wainwright

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. — Rufus Wainwright

If I had had more of a strategic attitude towards how to reveal my sexuality, and if I'd even played with it a little more, I could have sold a lot more albums and been a lot more famous. — Rufus Wainwright

Cigarettes and chocolate milk These are just a couple of my cravings Everything it seems I like's a little bit stronger A little bit thicker A little bit harmful for me. — Rufus Wainwright

In the present world, this technological, psychotic, politicised, nonsensical world, you have to believe that the good guys are going to win! That evil will be banished somehow! — Rufus Wainwright

I still believe that love is the most powerful force in the world, even though I am yet to experience it fully. — Rufus Wainwright

When you make a record, you listen to it literally hundreds of times. When it's done and you can't do anything else, I never listen to my records. — Loudon Wainwright III

When I was signed, at the age of 23 ... the fact that I presented myself as an out gay man was very, very unusual. — Rufus Wainwright

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. — Rufus Wainwright

Los Angeles, the sun shines a lot, and it's blue, and there's palm trees; it's a bit like Sydney, I guess, but the underbelly is a vicious, mean, cruel, awful place. — Loudon Wainwright III

I very much faced my mother's death with hard, arduous and time-consuming labor. The more I would do, the less I would feel. — Rufus Wainwright

I always wanted to be an actor, even as a little kid. So I went to drama school in the late '60s at Carnegie Mellon. — Loudon Wainwright III

I like to make the mundane fabulous whenever I can. — Rufus Wainwright

I have a three-year-old daughter, which makes me more environmentally conscious. For me, it's about the future. — Rufus Wainwright

For better or worse, I've always been curious musically. Whether it's opera or Judy Garland or pop, I've deliberately sought those things out. I've never wanted to do the same things over and over. Some think I've accomplished what I set out to do, and others consider me a dilettante. — Rufus Wainwright

I wasn't in a lot of rock and roll bands. I was in jug bands and things when I was in school. — Loudon Wainwright III

After a war, after a concentration camp, I find it's not too difficult to be happy. — Loudon Wainwright III

I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death. — Rufus Wainwright