I'm glad things are getting better, but I'm going to push and be pissed off until they're perfect. That will probably never happen, but I feel some weird duty nonetheless. Even though I can get married in Seattle, I could go to another country and get the death penalty just for being myself-I'm not making music just for fiancés in Seattle.

Perfume Genius

No family is safe when I sashay.

Perfume Genius

safe

I am fierce, yes, but I'm serious about music.

Perfume Genius

i-am fierce music serious

I feel trapped in my body. I want to be like like Scarlett Johansson in 'Lucy,' when she unlocks everything within her - I want to do that. I want to be the alien in 'Arrival' - a spitty, infinite-time-loop creature.

Perfume Genius

alien feel body want

I saw 'Predators.' That was pretty good, actually.

Perfume Genius

pretty-good saw pretty good

I think the best mood for writing is a heavy feeling that's a little bit removed from you. Sometimes I feel very self-indulgent and bratty and ungrateful, and no good music comes out of that. But sometimes I can be really sad or have an excess of feeling yet somehow be able to see the big picture more.

Perfume Genius

best good sad music

I was a bad student. My teachers gave up trying to teach me how to read music.

Perfume Genius

teachers bad me music

The thing is everything is good at the Cheesecake Factory. Everything's good. It's science-based. It's a formula; there's math. It's all good!

Perfume Genius

everything good cheesecake math

I wasn't a hoarder, but I was on my way. I went to thrift stores and never didn't buy something. A lot of cat figurines, needlepoint, afghans. Grandma stuff, I suppose.

Perfume Genius

something never cat way

I think it's fun to be superstitious. There's a drama in being superstitious. I'm like that in general. I have friends who don't believe in love or just think it's a chemical thing, and they don't believe in magic. I enjoy believing in all that stuff. It makes things seem more important than they are, like there's more to it.

Perfume Genius

friends enjoy love believe

I am a shy person.

Perfume Genius

person i-am shy-person shy

There's a book called 'You're Not a Stranger Here' by Adam Haslett - short stories, a lot of them are about mental illness and gay people - that classic combination. But they're really well-written, really powerful. It's pretty good.

Perfume Genius

good you gay people

iTunes is my favorite record store.

Perfume Genius

itunes store record favorite

I think people are surprised that I'm not - I think people come up to talk to me, and they think I'm going to be really morose. And I am, but I do that by myself - no one wants to see that. It's not really a phoniness; I just kind of keep it to myself. So I think people are surprised when they come up to talk to me and I hug them.

Perfume Genius

i-am myself me people

I've had people tell me that I should just be sad and not joke around on Twitter, but they don't understand that joking and being deeply sad are very close to each other. I'll have a horrible memory that I find hysterical one day, and the next day I'll cry about it.

Perfume Genius

day me sad people

One of the things that 'Too Bright' refers to is how there's a lot of times where I see things that I could change that could make me more contented, but I usually just don't make those changes because they seem new and scary. I just stay where I'm at, even if I'm miserable, because I'm familiar with it.

Perfume Genius

new see me change

I don't know if I could write a pop song without at least a little touch of bite in it, and it's usually not a bite that most people would want to sing.

Perfume Genius

know want song people

I like to have fun! And everything that's good for you is not fun, and that bores me.

Perfume Genius

have-fun good me you

I have a strange, not very traditional voice - I'm not Adele.

Perfume Genius

very traditional strange voice

If I'm not writing, I can download a newer album everybody's making a fuss about. But when I'm writing, I keep myself in my own zone - I worry about listening to new music that'll inform me too much. I'm the kind of person who goes to another country and starts speaking in an accent after three days.

Perfume Genius

myself me music country

I really never want to try to be cool.

Perfume Genius

never try cool want