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Portrait of Perfume Genius

Perfume Genius

(1981) Singer-songwriter United States

99 quotes in 334 categories

Perfume Genius talks about feeling left out of church hymns and being scared of the devil as a child. He shares how he worries about his appearance and sometimes wants to break rules. He also explains that he builds songs around words first, mixing strange and funny feelings.

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Perfume Genius is a singer-songwriter from the United States, best known for No shape.

Quick Facts About Perfume Genius

Born: September 25, 1981
Nationality: United States
Profession: Singer-songwriter
Notable works: No shape

About Perfume Genius

Michael Alden Hadreas, better known by his stage name Perfume Genius, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Hadreas's indie music stylistically explores pop and rock with various influences and atmospheres. The themes in his music have included sexuality, his personal struggle with Crohn's disease, domestic abuse, and the dangers faced by gay men in contemporary society.

Awards & Honors

Libera Award for Video of the Year

Quotes by Perfume Genius

I like Yoda. I like the Ewoks.

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I'm fairly dramatic.

Dramatic

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Sometimes I'm not into being a human.

Being

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I really never want to try to be cool.

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iTunes is my favorite record store.

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No family is safe when I sashay,

Family

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I think people come to my music just to feel less lonely.

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I have a really small and strange job history.

History

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

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I got very serious about micro-piglets and what it would be like to own them.

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For me, piano is just where I started; I know where to go with it.

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

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Everything I do is rebellious. Sometimes even against myself.

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I play a lot of role-playing games on the computer. And I always have.

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It used to be enough for me to get on stage and sing. I kind of crave the performance part now. I…

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I'm pretty sure I would have managed to over-share no matter what time period I was born in. It's a family thing,…

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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!

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I went off at a person who threw a plastic thing at one of my shows once. After I shamed them, I…

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If I drink coffee, I have to turn the lights off and lay down. I can't handle it.

Coffee

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I'm always 20 minutes ahead of myself in my head. But being present - it's beautiful when it happens.

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I do not work out regularly, but I do dance so much and jump around so much on stage, and I do…

Dance

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When I first started making music, I wrote the lyrics first, but now, because the music has got kind of wilder, I've…

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For a while, I thought I would maybe be a writer. But with music, I was such a nerd; I was really…

Body

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I don't think I wrote my first song until I was 25. And then everything I wrote ended up becoming my first…

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When I started to allow myself to not be locked into wearing men's clothes, things kind of opened up. It feels very…

Clothes

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To me, when something's really funny, there's, like, a wildness to it, and it's very close to the wildness of something potentially…

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The first record I bought was the 'Edward Scissorhands' soundtrack. I remember being really obsessed with the movie, and all the campiness…

Being

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I'm very sensitive - I'll cry during every movie or commercial - but when it comes to my own feelings, I don't…

Feelings

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Any tragic memory I have I also think is really funny. On any given day, I can think about how horrible something…

Comedy

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I don't feel like I make sense in the world. I don't feel like I look right. I don't feel like I…

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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…

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I saw this Facebook video of a boy, probably around seven, wearing a dress he had fashioned from a blanket, sashaying through…

Beautiful

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I like when I tweet about Tony Hawk. A lot of times, people think it's true; like, I've tweeted about having lunch…

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I've had people send messages that said, 'I'm sorry how I treated you in high school.' It was just through kindness. I…

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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…

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Hymns have always sounded like sung spells to me. I never felt included in the magic of the God songs I heard…

Comfort

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I realise there are situations where I camp it up, make myself into a sort of novelty character to ease things along.…

Attention

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I was watching a movie called 'Perfume.' The book is really good, but the movie is really bad. My friend was making…

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I'm really into gay stuff getting funded: having it be on TV and having a show.

Gay

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I get in my own way a lot. I feel a lot more confident than I... am.

Confident

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Perfume Genius by topic

Music (20) Time (13) Song (11) People (11)