Rupaul Quotes

People can identify as however you want to. Right on. Go for it. But my strategy in this bigger game of life is to not identify as anything.

- RuPaul

I always bring an orange scarf, not just so I can wear it or tuck it into my pocket, but also so I can throw it over a lamp in the hotel room. Orange is my favourite colour, and it gives a lovely, warm ambience.

- RuPaul

We humans are still a very primitive culture, and it's one of the traps we've fallen into over the course of our lives - to forget our history. That's why George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' is so profound. It chronicles our short memory.

- RuPaul

For both men and women, an eyelash curler is a must. It gives your eye the appearance of being well-rested and wide open.

- RuPaul

If you've worked in a factory, and you haven't learned how to do something else, you're obsolete. That's just nature.

- RuPaul

For my tribe, the people I found years ago, we've found sanctuary in the irreverent, in the off-center, in the quirky... And that's how we stay entertained, and that's how we stay engaged in what would otherwise seem to be a really cruel world. A really harsh world.

- RuPaul

It's important to find your tribe.

- RuPaul

I think our culture is moving forward - slowly. And also, as we move forward, we're witnessing some of the old stalwarts rejecting that forward motion.

- RuPaul

It's true in everything, not just in drag: To be a success, you have to understand the landscape. You have to know thyself, and you have to know your history so that you can draw from people who have figured out the equation you are faced with. It's not rocket science.

- RuPaul

'The Wizard of Oz' is my favourite. It explains what life on this planet is about. Although Dorothy reaches Oz, she finds she had what she needed to go back to Kansas all along, but the Good Witch tells her that she had to learn it for herself. All of the answers to the meaning of life are there.

- RuPaul

The only person I look up to - and not just in show business but also in the world - is a little lady named Judge Judy! Honestly.

- RuPaul

I loved 'Carol.' I thought it was a beautiful film.

- RuPaul

Don't believe the hype; don't believe what it tells you on your driver's license. You are an extension of the power that created this whole universe.

- RuPaul

I've never personally differentiated a person who dressed up in a three-piece suit and goes to Wall Street from a person who dresses up in a polyester uniform and works at McDonalds. I think it's all drag.

- RuPaul

My number one tip for all people, not just drag queens, is false eyelashes, which make every look go from daytime to glamazon!

- RuPaul

Drag queens have always taken on that role of spilling the tea - and the tea is the emperor has no clothes!

- RuPaul

I go to the gym at five in the morning and then go do a hike.

- RuPaul

I think drag is universal, no matter who does it. I mean, yeah, I am homosexual, but I think everybody likes to toy with their image. I love those guys. I love Milton Berle and Flip Wilson and all those people.

- RuPaul

I've been on both sides; I've interviewed people, and I do an okay job, I guess. But it's awful. Because you feel like you have to defend your life, which is such an interesting concept. It's not an easy process to sit down and talk about, 'What's your motivation?' Because as I'm answering, I'm working it out for myself at the same time.

- RuPaul

Everyone has a really short attention span, and you have to bombard them with content, content, content.

- RuPaul

A regular old drag queen is usually your science teacher who's actually wearing women's panties underneath his slacks. A drag-queen superstar is someone who actually works in clubs and makes a living doing it more than one night a year, or even one night in six months.

- RuPaul

I haven't found a heel that's been too high for me yet.

- RuPaul

Personally, I experience success when I enjoy what I'm doing. I love the creative process, even if the end result isn't embraced by anyone else.

- RuPaul

La Flavour's 'Mandolay' is a disco classic - I dare you to sit still while listening to it.

- RuPaul

The only time you will ever see me in drag is when I am - What? Getting paid. It is my job.

- RuPaul

My spiritual practice reminds me of what's really real, what's really hood.

- RuPaul

I try to do three active things a day because I have to fit into costumes that are very tight.

- RuPaul

From childhood, we're trained to be a certain way, to behave a certain way - so that the power base can control us, really. And punk and drag are completely outside of that.

- RuPaul

The number one taboo for boys is to be feminine, so for someone to not only override their internal directive but society's directive is mind-boggling and heroic. It's courageous.

- RuPaul

I remember being 14 years old, making a pact with myself. I would never join into the matrix, never join into the status quo, and I would always fight it. It always felt like I was on an operating table and the anesthesia never worked.

- RuPaul

I've always idolized people who can write songs.

- RuPaul

The whole point is to live life and be - to use all the colors in the crayon box.

- RuPaul

It's important to remember that you're born naked, and the rest is drag.

- RuPaul

Drag is there to remind culture not to take itself too seriously. All of this is illusion.

- RuPaul

We encrypt 'Drag Race' with the secret language that kept gay people linked for many years before the '80s.

- RuPaul

Drag is involved with changing identities and not taking identities too seriously at all. That's why drag is such a hard sell to a network - or anyone, really - because it's up against the ego.

- RuPaul

Drag breaks the fourth wall, which is why it's never been quite accepted, because nobody wants to be told that they are really a caricature of themself and to not take yourself too seriously.

- RuPaul

Everybody is in drag.

- RuPaul

I started out in this business in rock and roll bands and stumbled into drag. Drag just happened to be my vehicle for my creativity. So, you know, it's afforded me the opportunity to create new shows, to make music.

- RuPaul

I've still never gotten used to myself in drag.

- RuPaul

Drag is really about reminding people that you are more than you think you are - you are more than what it says on your passport.

- RuPaul

I always did what I thought was interesting. I always just did what caught my fantasy. Looking like a woman, that was never the criteria for me. It was always to do drag. And drag is not gender-specific. Drag is just drag. It's exaggeration.

- RuPaul

I love drag, and I love people who gravitate toward it. Because the people who do drag are people who dance to the beat of a different drummer.

- RuPaul

Drag has always been the thing you turn to to remember to not take yourself too seriously.

- RuPaul

When I go out, I'm always dressed up. Not in drag but always prepared to be 'on.' Just in case somebody's going to take a picture. Everyone has a Facebook page, so no matter what, I'm prepared to service the public.

- RuPaul

Doing drag in a male-dominant culture is an act of treason. It's the most punk-rock thing you can do.

- RuPaul

We are all doing drag. Every single person on this planet is doing it.

- RuPaul

I love the creativity and the social and political aspects of drag.

- RuPaul

I don't think drag will ever be mainstream because it's counter to what the mainstream directive is, which is picking an identity and sticking with it for the rest of your life.

- RuPaul

All things to do with drag are inherently therapeutic because the realization of your own insanity is the beginning of sanity.

- RuPaul

There are so many sensitive souls; they don't know what to do with their feelings.

- RuPaul

I love Ashford & Simpson, and I love the Brothers Gibb. They are amazing.

- RuPaul

My love life has never been of interest to people. Of course I have a love life; I have a real life outside of show business.

- RuPaul

Having an automobile in Los Angeles enables me to change clothes at least three times a day: I will go from western wear to nautical to Savile Row in the course of 12 hours.

- RuPaul

I dance to the beat of a different drummer.

- RuPaul

Wyoming - God bless you in Wyoming - it's very boring, and it's the most isolated place on Earth.

- RuPaul

I'm not religious, but I do pray. It's 60 seconds of meditation, visualizing myself, looking at myself, and being conscious of my own consciousness. That will align me for the rest of the day.

- RuPaul

There are only two types of people in the world. There are the people who understand that this is a matrix, and then there are the people who buy it lock, stock and barrel.

- RuPaul

People deal with grief in many different ways. And some people in show business parade their relationships around like an accessory, and others like to keep it separate from business and commerce. It's perfectly fine to say, 'I actually don't want to talk about my love because that's not part of the fantasy world I created in commerce.'

- RuPaul

Usually, people who don't have a broad perspective see gay people as servants - as people who are there to make them look good.

- RuPaul

I think this life is hard without assistance from others.

- RuPaul

Anna Wintour is a very smart woman. She's a Scorpio, like me.

- RuPaul

People don't know how to place me in their consciousness. They think, 'Oh, you must be here to make me look good. That's what gay guys are, right? You're an accessory for my straight life.' Just because your limited view is that everyone's there to serve you and that you're the only person in the world. It doesn't work that way.

- RuPaul

I had mentors, growing up in gay life - older gay men who told me about our history and the history of art and culture - but somehow, the younger generation missed out on that synergy.

- RuPaul

Throughout my life, I have always believed in love; I've always put my heart in love. But I've seen fear take people so often. It's very scary.

- RuPaul

Life's journey - it unfolds for you as you are ready for it.

- RuPaul

Life is dangerous. There are no guarantees.

- RuPaul

Mainstream's never appealed to me, really. I mean, I've become popular over the years in certain areas. But mainstream, you know, I would rather the mainstream come to me.

- RuPaul

Honestly, it's important to not take this whole process of life on this planet too seriously. And you need games to remind you that every aspect of your experience on this planet is a game. And you have to be a good sport. You have to strategize, and you have to have fun.

- RuPaul

I love games. My favorite thing on this planet to do is to play games. And if you don't enjoy games, then you're really missing the point of what this life is.

- RuPaul

I'm a pop victim. I love pop music; I love pop culture. I love Olivia Newton-John.

- RuPaul

This is an important thing: People who live in the mainstream and the status quo think that everyone else is there to serve them.

- RuPaul

If you look at their voting habits and their eating habits, you realize people are stupid.

- RuPaul

Unfortunately, in our culture, one person can write a letter to the network, and they shut something down. It's unfortunate.

- RuPaul

Never forget that the most political thing you can ever do is follow your heart.

- RuPaul

In my life, I've been able to really examine society in a way most people who aren't outsiders don't get a chance to do.

- RuPaul

I've cried my eyes out and wanted to end it all before. I hope everybody's gone that far, because it makes life rich.

- RuPaul

I don't think there is a life in the mundane 9-to-5 hypocrisy. That's not living.

- RuPaul

I've always been ambitious. I've always been able to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I like to stay busy. I love working, and I love being creative.

- RuPaul

I've lived my whole life in the life - I've lived my whole life doing the thing, I've been doing my own thing. And I think my life speaks volumes about what one must do.

- RuPaul

It's a neutralizing mantra to say to everybody, 'I come in peace.' I come in peace. That's why it's important.

- RuPaul

I feel like I've won every year the show has been picked up by Logo because, really, nothing beats a paycheck.

- RuPaul

I've always been drawn to people who dance to the beat of a different drum; it didn't matter if they were in film or music or fashion.

- RuPaul

Hollywood is an idea. It's not a real place.

- RuPaul

The secret of success in every field is redefining what success means to you. It can't be your parent's definition, the media's definition, or your neighbor's definition. Otherwise, success will never satisfy you.

- RuPaul

Life is not to be taken seriously.

- RuPaul

I enjoy being creative.

- RuPaul

I've been very blessed, and that has not escaped me.

- RuPaul

I have always worked and did my work on the fringe, where I have feel very comfortable.

- RuPaul

In our subconscious, we all know we're playing roles.

- RuPaul

If you grow up in show business, you look beyond the looking glass. So, all of the surface facades get broken.

- RuPaul

There's not another lip-synch song on the planet, in the history of lip-synching songs, that has been lip-synched more than 'I Will Survive.'

- RuPaul

It's very easy to look at the world and think this is all so cruel and so mean. It's important to not become bitter from it.

- RuPaul

I'm ambitious. I work hard.

- RuPaul

Once you clear out from your consciousness things that no longer matter, you're able to make room for other things.

- RuPaul

I've always been interested in what else is here, what lies beneath.

- RuPaul

Young people need to know there are ways for them to navigate this life.

- RuPaul

My focus is on love and inclusiveness.

- RuPaul

It's hard to get intimate with an audience.

- RuPaul

If you're upset by something I said, you have bigger problems than you think.

- RuPaul