The British-born pop star George Michael rose to fame in the 1980s with his band Wham!, which he started with his close friend Andrew Ridgeley. Together, the two were known for songs like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”
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Later, as many recently saw in the new Netflix Wham! documentary, WHAM!, Michael went solo, earning even more fame and fortune thanks to songs like “Faith.” Michael, though, who was known for holiday songs like “Last Christmas” passed away early at 53 years old on December 25, 2016.
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In his wake, he left many songs and many fans. And also many good quotes. Below are the 25 best George Michael quotes.
1. “The fact [that] I had my father as an adversary was such a powerful tool to work with. I subconsciously fought him to the degree that I drove me to be one of the most successful musicians in the world.”
2. “My depression at the end of Wham! was because I was beginning to realize I was gay, not bi.”
3. “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.”
4. “I owe my mother who I am, and my father my drive.”
5. “I’ve done different things at different times that I shouldn’t have done, once or twice, you know.”
6. “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.”
7. “I have got other interests than just making music. I would like to follow those interests through.”
8. “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.”
9. “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.”
10. “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.”
11. “It takes so much strength to say to your ego, ‘You know what? You’re going to keep me lonely, so I have to ignore you.'”
12. “When you are trying to express things with metaphors and much more subtlety, that’s when you are doing yourself a disservice by making a video.”
13. “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.”
14. “The truth is my love life has been a lot more turbulent than I have let on.”
15. “The media has affected everybody’s consciousness much more than most people will admit.”
16. “I know I have a very self-destructive tendency since my mother died, I have got to be honest.”
17. “In terms of my work, I’ve never been reticent in terms of defining my sexuality. I write about my life.”
18. “There are so many things and so many aspects to gay life that I’ve discovered and so many things to write about. I have a new life, and I have a new take on dance music because of that life.”
19. “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.”
20. “Deep down, my ego always thought that I would outlast a lot of people that I was competing against.”
21. “In the years when HIV was a killer, any parent of an openly gay person was terrified. I knew my mother well enough that she would spend every day praying that I didn’t come across that virus. She’d have worried like that.”
22. “It’s strange. At some point in your career, the situation between yourself and the camera reverses. For a certain number of years, you court it and you need it, but ultimately, it needs you more, and it’s a bit like a relationship. The minute that happens, it turns you off… and it does feel like it is taking something from you.”
23. “If someone really wants to hurt you, they’ll find a way whatever. I don’t want to live my life worrying about it.”
24. “I’m not stupid enough to think that I can deal with another 10 or 15 years of major exposure. I think that is the ultimate tragedy of fame… People who are simply out of control, who are lost. I’ve seen so many of them, and I don’t want to be another cliche.”
25. “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.”
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