Welcome to our collection of quotes by RuPaul. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960), known mononymously as RuPaul, is an American drag queen, actor, model, singer, television personality, and author. Since 2009, he has produced and hosted the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race, for which he has received eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, the most-awarded person of color in the show's history. He is considered the most commercially successful drag queen in the United States. In 2017, he was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2019, Fortune noted him as "easily the world's most famous" drag queen.
Born and raised in San Diego, California, RuPaul later studied performing arts in Atlanta, Georgia. He settled in New York City, where he became a popular fixture on the LGBT nightclub scene. He achieved international fame as a drag queen with the release of his debut single, "Supermodel (You Better Work)", which was included on his debut studio album Supermodel of the World (1993). In 1994, he became a spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics, raising money for the Mac AIDS Fund and becoming the first drag queen to land a major cosmetics campaign. That year, he received his own talk show on VH1 called The RuPaul Show, which he hosted for over 100 episodes while co-hosting the morning radio show on WKTU with Michelle Visage. He has had continued success as a recording artist, releasing 14 studio albums including Foxy Lady (1996), Ho Ho Ho (1997), Champion (2009), Glamazon (2011), and Born Naked (2014).
RuPaul has made appearances in films including Crooklyn (1994), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), Hurricane Bianca (2016), the Comedy Central series Broad City (2017), and the Netflix original shows Girlboss (2017), Grace and Frankie (2019), and AJ and the Queen (2020). He has also published three books: Lettin' It All Hang Out (1995), Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style (2010), and GuRu (2018).
To date, RuPaul's Drag Race has produced thirteen seasons in the United States and 2 in the United Kingdom (as of 2021). The show has seen success globally with a further six international formats of the show in production. This has also inspired several spin-off series, including RuPaul's Drag U, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, and RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race. He is also featured as a host on series such as Skin Wars, Good Work, and Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul. In June 2019, his daytime talk show RuPaul premiered, but was cancelled after a three-week test run.
RuPaul is indifferent to which gender-specific pronouns are used to refer to him and once quipped, "You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don't care! Just as long as you call me." He has also played male roles and makes public appearances in both male and female drag.
I've still never gotten used to myself in drag.
Drag has always been the thing you turn to to remember to not take yourself too seriously.
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.'
Once you clear out from your consciousness things that no longer matter, you're able to make room for other things.
I enjoy being creative.
My focus is on love and inclusiveness.
If you're upset by something I said, you have bigger problems than you think.
Life is not to be taken seriously.
In our subconscious, we all know we're playing roles.
This is an important thing: People who live in the mainstream and the status quo think that everyone else is there to serve them.
Young people need to know there are ways for them to navigate this life.
It's hard to get intimate with an audience.
Unfortunately, in our culture, one person can write a letter to the network, and they shut something down. It's unfortunate.
I haven't found a heel that's been too high for me yet.
Life is dangerous. There are no guarantees.
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.
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.
I've been very blessed, and that has not escaped me.
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.
The only time you will ever see me in drag is when I am -- What? Getting paid. It is my job.
We encrypt 'Drag Race' with the secret language that kept gay people linked for many years before the '80s.
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.
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.
I try to do three active things a day because I have to fit into costumes that are very tight.
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.
Usually, people who don't have a broad perspective see gay people as servants -- as people who are there to make them look good.
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.
I've always been interested in what else is here, what lies beneath.
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.
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.
I'm ambitious. I work hard.
There are so many sensitive souls; they don't know what to do with their feelings.
Drag is there to remind culture not to take itself too seriously. All of this is illusion.
I love the creativity and the social and political aspects of drag.
My motivation comes from a love of being creative. I'm in love with music and colour and laughter and dancing and all things that are beautiful.
I loved 'Carol.' I thought it was a beautiful film.
The truth is -- most things are probably gonna fail. But my failures bring me to the next thing. So in that regard, nothing's a failure, it's a continuation.
La Flavour's 'Mandolay' is a disco classic -- I dare you to sit still while listening to it.
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.
I dance to the beat of a different drummer.
Drag really is all about dipping into pop culture and then reshaping it into something else.
We are born nude and everything after that is drag.
We're born naked, and the rest is drag.
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.
Everybody is in drag.
I have always worked and did my work on the fringe, where I have feel very comfortable.
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.
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.
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.
My drag is less about looking like a woman and more about saying F.U. to the cult of systematic masculinity I was bombarded with as a little boy.
It's a neutralizing mantra to say to everybody, 'I come in peace.' I come in peace. That's why it's important.
When I was about 13, 14 -- 13, I would carry a magic marker with me everywhere I went so I could write the word Bowie on everything that wasn't mine.
You can't have a discussion about bullying unless you also have a discussion against our culture's obsession with masculinity.
If you've worked in a factory, and you haven't learned how to do something else, you're obsolete. That's just nature.
I don't think there is a life in the mundane 9-to-5 hypocrisy. That's not living.
Live your life in the now, because you get to a certain age and you realize, Wow, that was fast.
Everyone knows about the diminishments of growing older, but no one talks about the expanding strengths. Paired with intellect, your intuition grows increasingly stronger and more on point.
We all came into this world naked. The rest is all drag.
It's important to remember that you're born naked, and the rest is drag.
Never forget that the most political thing you can ever do is follow your heart.
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.
I feel like I've won every year the show has been picked up by Logo because, really, nothing beats a paycheck.
The point about pop culture is that so much of it is borrowed. There's very little that's brand new. Instead, creativity today is a kind of shopping process--picking up on and sampling things form the world around you, things you grew up with.
Through my observations, it became clear that most of society's rules and customs are rooted in fear and superstition!
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.
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.
Throw a little shade when you need to.
Drag for me has always been my superhero costume.
Doing drag in a male-dominant culture is an act of treason. It's the most punk-rock thing you can do.
You have to find a tribe.
It's important to find your tribe.
All things to do with drag are inherently therapeutic because the realization of your own insanity is the beginning of sanity.
When I think about my Glamazon, would that character get down if someone said her thighs were heavy? No, she knows what other people think is none of her damn business.
Never save bath bombs for later. Never wait for a special occasion to light candles. Don't wait to book a massage. Treat yourself to a spa day. Get yourself a colonic immediately. Now is the time. Your body is a temple. Serve it and it will serve you well.
The whole point is to live life and be -- to use all the colors in the crayon box.
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.
I do not impersonate females! How many women do you know who wear seven inch heels, four foot wigs, and skintight dresses?
Our bodies are just temporary vessels for our souls, which will go on forever. You really are an extension of the power that created the whole universe, no matter what drags you have on.
It's important to make a great first impression, so make sure to hold on to your damn weave.
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.
For both men and women, an eyelash curler is a must. It gives your eye the appearance of being well-rested and wide open.
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.
Kindness only goes so far, and then it's time to show your claws.
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.
It's all about knowing that everybody that you see, everybody that you sit across from is a different aspect of yourself. So once you can accept yourself on every level, that's when everything opens up, that's when the party really begins.
To this day it cracks me up to think that my debut on national British television as a reporter ends with me turning a trick.
You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don't care! Just as long as you call me.
No one wants a cherry pie that bites back.
Walking with your chest out and your head held high says you have earned the right to stomp and pummel this particular piece of real estate.
I've dedicated my career to fighting the mundane. My hope is that my career will be a shining example to children everywhere that life is more meaningful when you are not afraid to see all colors of the rainbow.
I can always sniff out when someone is being what they think I want them to be, which is the complete opposite. I really want a queen to be herself.
Don't be afraid to use all the colors in the crayon box.
Don't be jealous of my boogie.