I would advise any gay person that being out in the real sense can never happen too soon.

I want to make a pop album - something more upbeat than my stuff was in the '90s.

I think for most of us, our biggest frailties are sexual.

I spent years growing up being told what my sexuality was.

I left school at 17 and was a star by the time I was 18 - in certain parts of the world anyway.

It's absolutely essential that we have the same safeguards that straight couples do. But I want more than a 50 percent chance of success. I don't want to emulate that.

If I can just live further from the spotlight I think that'll be better for all really.

I'm the luckiest writer on earth.

I don't really think that there is anyone in the modern pop business who I feel I want to spar with.

I've written a whole body of work that I'm incredibly proud of.

I've been very well remunerated for my talents over the years so I really don't need the public's money.

You can't imagine what it's like playing to people who have been loyal to you for 25 years and haven't seen you for 15.

I mean, I've done different things at different times that I shouldn't have done, once or twice, you know.

I watch people who are not driven by creativity any more, and I think how dull it must be to produce the same kind of thing. If you don't feel you're reaching something new, then don't do it.

I have got other interests than just making music. I would like to follow those interests through.

I'm not a novelty act from the '80s in most parts of the world.

I really have no plans for any kind of career in TV or anything, but if I wanted to become good at it, I could. But I don't really think it's in the cards.

I don't have joy in watching myself, whereas, actually, I quite like listening to my own music.

It's only when the kids are in their late twenties that families really face up to what they are.

My depression at the end of Wham! was because I was beginning to realise I was gay, not bi.

I had to walk away from America, and say goodbye to the biggest part of my career, because I knew otherwise my demons would get the better of me.

I'm just not security-minded.

If someone really wants to hurt you, they'll find a way whatever. I don't want to live my life worrying about it.

I can't bear Catholicism.

I went to prison, I paid my bill.

I'm lucky to be alive.

I have to believe that somebody up there thinks I've still got some work to do.

There is no such thing as a reluctant star.

I find it too terrifying to go out in L.A.

English people have seen me get through scandals.

I went through a long period where I was afraid of doing things I wanted to do, and you get your courage back, which is what's important.

I know I have a very self-destructive tendency since my mother died, I have got to be honest.

I do want people to know that the songs that I wrote when I was with women were really about women. And the songs that I've written since have been fairly obvious about men.

Even though it's become a really cliched thing to see musicians working for charity, it's still effective and it still has to be done.

Because of the media, the way the world is perceived is as a place where resources and time are running out. We're taught that you have to grab what you can before it's gone. It's almost as if there isn't time for compassion.

You can't have a child just to keep a relationship together, can you?

In the very early days of Wham! the attention felt great, but I do wonder how much freedom I gave away by trying to become something I wasn't.

I don't really have any traits that I deplore. I get annoyed with myself sometimes, but that's about it.

I spent the first half of my career being accused of being gay when I hadn't had anything like a gay relationship.

A lot of people like me, who've been around for years and years and years, only really lose it in their forties and fifties.

I try very hard to thank my lucky stars and keep it all in proportion and perspective, but it can be very tiring having a smiley face all day.

The first sign of real obsession with music was with an old wind-up gramophone that mum had thrown out into the garage. My parents gave me three old 45s - two Supremes records and one Tom Jones record - and I used to come home from school literally every day, go out to the garage, wind this thing up, and play them.

There are things about my mum that I only realised later, things that make me admire her.

I had been obsessed with insects and creepy-crawlies: I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and go out into this field behind our garden and collect insects before everyone else got up, and suddenly, all I wanted to know about was music. It just seemed a very, very strange thing.

Deep down, my ego always thought that I would outlast a lot of people that I was competing against.

I'm 10-12 years into life as an out gay man, and I'm a different person. I think there are things about my journey that might be useful to other people, and coming up with a hit record on its own doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

I have no belief in The Bible or religion, but I think Armageddon was a lucky guess. I honestly think it's going to happen.

Apart from some of the videos and haircuts, I don't think I've made any wrong moves, ha ha!

No one wants to look wholesome at 21!

I used to believe that George Michael was a total actor. It was self-defeating, because it made me also feel fraudulent.