I was always taught by punk to think for yourself and to question authority. That's what I've always tried to do.

You know, sexism in the punk scene - or just in rock and roll in general - is so easily demonstrated by the amount of women or queer people that you see on stage versus the amount of cis males that you see on stage.

Butch Vig was a true friend and really guided us, and it was such a fulfilling relationship with a person to make records with.

I turned to punk because I didn't fit in anywhere else.

When I was 19 or 20, the way I was an activist was by regularly meeting with groups, going to protests, and being there on the ground.

I don't want to be just that transgender performer or that transgender musical artist. I want to create songs and art and have those be judged on their merit alone.

Musicians are kind of like pirates, you know? You have to be free to follow whatever your muse is, or wherever life is pulling you - especially if you aren't in, like, U2, and making millions and millions of dollars.

I fear cops and have never felt the protection of them.

Chicago prides itself on being a mean city.

Any way that I can use my career or my platform to push along transgender visibility in the mainstream and society serves me on a personal level in that it will make day-to-day existence when I'm not doing this that much easier.

Every musician out there wants to be judged on the merit of their songwriting, the merit of their performing abilities.

To me, the songs that I'm most thankful to have been a part of creating are the songs that are able to adapt and change over the years and that mean different things to you at different periods of time in your life.

I really like dumb romantic comedies; that's the way I can turn my brain off and let go.

I like the idea that the body is a vessel, that it's not necessarily representative of the real you that's inside of it.

Going on tour for 10 years straight and playing 200-plus shows a year, you can't ever come back from that mentally. You're twisted in a weird way where you need that in order to be a person still.

I'm big on hair. I love Julianne Moore's hair. That's all I'd like: Julianne Moore hair.

When I was fourteen years old, I got arrested for battering an officer and resisting arrest with violence. I was beat up by the cops and they charged me with that. There was no original arresting charge.

Growing up, my experience with transsexualism was nothing but shame. It was something very hidden, and dealt with very privately.

I don't feel like I've ever been in mainstream society.

Any doctor will tell you a great treatment for depression is exercise, physical exertion, that it really ups the dopamine in your brain, so that's what a show is. I play a show and that's a high for me; I can ride that.

I grew up with a mother who always had every fashion magazine stacked up on the side of her bed. When I was really young, I'd lie in bed with her, and we'd look at the magazines.

I just want to be an artist that makes exactly what he feels.

I am a pretty bad driver, so when I drive, I need to be calm. I can't be vibing to DMX, all hype, in the car.

I think about love being so important because, to me, that's the reason we were put on Earth. Love, in a sense, is God to me.