Brian Molko

Brian: I like the fact that people either think I'm incredibly gorgeous or f*cking ugly.

Brian (on when he realised he was a rock star): When every day became a hangover. And when you look at yourself in the mirror and go 'I don't like how you're coming across to people.' And when every day just started to feel the same. After the 50th shag, it doesn't mean so much anymore.

Brian: Glam rock, to me, is a bunch of straight, hairy, football-liking Lager lads dressed up in mother's castoffs.

Brian: I just enjoy f**king with people's heads. For the first half of our gigs, there's normally some guy convinced I'm a girl, and a pretty cute one at that. As the gig continues, it begins to dawn on him that I'm a bloke, and suddenly he has to ask himself some serious questions.

Brian: I had quite a religious upbringing. I gave my life over to Christ at 11. I took it back when I was about 14.

Brian: I'm continually surprised by the amount of people I wind up. For many guys, I'm the fagg*t their girlfriend fancies.

Brian (on the world): We live in a strange bubble.

Brian (on desire and attraction): I believe very strongly that when it comes to desire, when it comes to attraction, that things are never black and white, things are very much shades of grey.

Brian: I was a very frustrated, lonely and anti-social young man. I felt very alienated and very bored as well.

Brian: I feel very comfortable with the way I look, and I feel very comfortable with the kind of confusion that it creates in people's minds.

Brian (on Placebo's aim as a band): To write beautiful music and communicate real emotion, and to play strong and exciting gigs. That is now our drug.

Brian (On the afterlife): I'd be interested in finding out if there is a light you walk into, and if you do meet people from your life and walk hand in hand with Jesus. I would hate for my death to be tragic: I'd like to be old when it happens. But hopefully a young death is unlikely.

Brian (On what his parents think of Placebo): They're getting used to it. I think fear is slowly turning into pride. I think they were quite perturbed in the beginning, but they're coming 'round to it. I was always a bit of a loose cannon, then again I was always the artistic one: bit of a social misfit. I probably still am.

Brian (On Placebo's second album "Without You I'm Nothing"): Most of these are love songs where I'm trying to come to grips with relationships. They're frequently told from the point of view of ex-lovers, so at first it may seem like I'm being arrogant, but actually I'm eating humble pie. I'm cutting open a vein and letting it bleed for you.

Brian: I think that most people expect us to be lying in the gutter with needles hanging out of our arms, quoting Oscar Wilde to the stars. But that hasn't happened in years.

Brian: I guess the line between being paranoid and being a rock star is smaller than one would expect.

Brian (on scars): There's one on my wrist where I put my arm through a window trying to open it; the glass missed Mr Vein by a millimetre. It healed in the shape of a Nike Swoosh. They can't buy advertising like that.

Brian: Being so honest in my writing is cathartic.

Brian (on his parents): They kinda wanted me to be a boy, but I didn't want to wear any men's clothes.

Brian: Dresses, I find, are impractical in social situations, but I enjoy wearing them a great deal on stage.

Brian: The more personal you make something, the more universal it becomes, because essentially we're all made up of the same emotional stuff.

Brian: We left a trail of blood and spunk.