Gaga: "I'm very free-spirited."

Gaga: "Friendship is only friendship when it is real. Passionate and relentless. Forgiving and joyful. Don't forget today to have real moments with your friends. Not a text, or a tweet, an Instagram-- that's all deceit. Hold real hands, kiss genuine lips, be a truly strong human force."

Gaga: "You have to be unique, and different, and shine in your own way."

Gaga: "I don't think I could live without hair, makeup and styling, let alone be the performer I am. I am a glamour girl through and through. I believe in the glamorous life and I live one."

Gaga: "I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry."

Gaga: "I think what made it difficult for people to get, and still makes it difficult for people to get, is the theatrical nature of the work and the fact that, my music doesn't exist without the performance-art element."

Gaga: "And now, I'm just trying to change the world, one sequin at a time."

Gaga: "I think what it really is, is that I date creative people. And I think that what intimidates them is not my purse; it's my mind."

Gaga: "I guess you could say I devoted myself so strongly to my music that for awhile I forgot about my family. But I only get one set of parents, and I think I forgot about that for a little while."

Gaga: "I'm obsessively opposed to the typical."

Gaga: "I'm not one icon. I'm every icon. I'm an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions."

Gaga: "I began singing in dive bars and really small clubs. I dragged my piano down the stairs, and I went down the street with my keyboard, and I would go to every different dive bar that I could get to agree to let me play. I'd call and pretend I was Lady Gaga's manager."

Gaga: "I allow myself to fail. I allow myself to break. I'm not afraid of my flaws."

Gaga: "I'm confident in who I am. I've come to a place in my life where I've accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That's just the way I've always tried to be. It didn't change when I became a star."

Gaga: "You have to be careful about how much you reveal to people that look up to you so much."

Gaga: "I want you to feel happy and enjoy the theatre of my life the way that I do. No matter what happens with my music and wherever I go - that heart of that glamorous girl in New York will never be gone."

Gaga: "We are equal. We both walk our two feet on the same earth. And we’re in this together."

Gaga: "Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you anymore."

Gaga: "Don't you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can't be exactly who you are."

Gaga: "It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves, you know, to put other people down, or make fun of them, or maybe make mockery of their work and that doesn't make me feel good at all."

Gaga: "If you don't feel safe as a child, you can't learn."

Gaga: "I am not some goddess that dropped down from the sky to sing pop music; I am not some extra-incredible human person that needs to be told how wonderful they are all day and kissed."

Gaga: "In a sense I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny."

Gaga: "We can no longer afford to be silenced by stigma or stymied by misguided ideas that portray these conditions as a matter of weakness or moral failing."

Gaga: "I try to not focus on what people expect from me."

Gaga: "I hope that what you take away from my album is not just the music - which I did want to be fun, and I did want it to be about individuality, but please also take away from it that there's no dream that's too big."

Gaga: "I already am a product."

Gaga: "I work very hard, but when God opens that door for you - when life opens that door for you, I should say - I think it's important to be giving, to return the love back."

Gaga: "I feel that if I can show my demise artistically to the public, I can somehow cure my own legend."

Gaga: "We can do hard things. We can be away from each other and we can still thrive. We can be isolated and we can keep going. We can lose our jobs, but we can find new ways to prosper. And if we see somebody suffering, so many of us will ask, 'How can I help you?'"

Gaga: "I have to be on such a strict diet constantly."

Gaga: "Be brave and celebrate with us your 'perceived flaws,' as society tells us. May we make our flaws famous, and thus redefine the heinous."

Gaga: "Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it's broken, but you can still see the crack in the reflection."

Gaga: "When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn't truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn't come from your spirit and your soul, it's an injustice to your position. And so, I'm really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to."

Gaga: "When people say 'marriage' to me... It's always a means to an end. Everyone's so in a rush to define the relationship."

Gaga: "So basically I did this whole show carrying 100lbs, looking out of one eye, dancing – and then my t*ts explode at the end. It's not as easy as it looks!"

Gaga: "I don't want to make niche-oriented music."

Gaga: "If you only believe that you're an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that's quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next."

Gaga: "A record deal doesn't make you an artist; you make yourself an artist."

Gaga: "When I say to you, there is nobody like me, and there never was, that is a statement I want every woman to feel and make about themselves."

Gaga: "Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don't know how to manage it."

Gaga: "Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world."

Gaga: "Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show."

Gaga: "The reason that I'm here at all is because of my relationship with my family and their encouragement of me to be a musician and to work hard. As long as I stay there in that space, I can do anything. That's my truth."

Gaga: "I'm a free b*tch baby!"

Gaga: "There is something in the way that we are now, with our cell phones, and people are not looking at each other and not being in the moment with each other, that kids feel isolated."

Gaga: "I'm not as goal obsessed as I am process obsessed."

Gaga: "Then, when I'm in these relationships with people who are also creative, or creative in their own way, what happens is the attraction is initially there and it's all unicorns and rainbows. And then they hate me."

Gaga: "Whether I'm wearing lots of makeup or no makeup, I'm always the same person inside."

Gaga: "I think that promoting insecurity in the form of plastic surgery is infinitely more harmful than an artistic expression related to body modification."

Gaga: "When I'm making music, I can hear all the parts, all the instruments. I can hear what it should be."

Gaga: "I’m here because … I see a lot of people who have secrets that are killing them. We don’t want you to keep your pain inside and let it rot like an old apple on your counter, you know? It’s like, just get rid of all that trash. Let’s get rid of it together."

Gaga: "We need to share our stories so that global mental health no longer resides and festers in the darkness."

Gaga: "I believe that the most inexpensive and perhaps the best medicine in the world is words. Kind words … positive words … words that help people who feel ashamed of an invisible illness to overcome their shame and feel free."

Gaga: "There is a lot of shame attached to mental illness ... this is a part of me and that's OK."

Gaga: "I used to walk down the street like I was a f*cking star... I want people to walk around delusional about how great they can be - and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth."

Gaga: "I'm telling you a lie in a vicious effort that you will repeat my lie over and over until it becomes true"

Gaga: "I learned that my sadness never destroyed what was great about me. You just have to go back to that greatness, find that one little light that's left. I'm lucky I found one little glimmer stored away."

Gaga: "I've worked since I was a five-year-old to be a performer."

Gaga: "You use your platforms and voices to both raise awareness and enforce change and be change, and I feel deeply that there is nothing more respectable one with such a platform can do."

Gaga: "I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life."

Gaga: "It doesn't matter who you are, or where you come from, or how much money you've got in your pocket. You have your own destiny and your own life ahead of you."

Gaga: "I don't want to make money; I want to make a difference."

Gaga: "I’ve suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life, I still suffer with it every single day. I just want these kids to know that that depth that they feel as human beings is normal."

Gaga: "Fight and push harder for what you believe in, you'd be surprised, you are much stronger than you think."

Gaga: "My records are borderline dance records. They've got a real electro-rock heart and soul, and the vibe of the sentiment is pop, but there's a lot of people that were like, 'This is a dance record.'"

Gaga: "I was performing in New York and my friends started to call me Gaga, they said I was very theatrical and they said, 'You're Gaga'."

Gaga: "Depression doesn't take away your talents — it just makes them harder to find. But I always find it. I learned that my sadness never destroyed what was great about me. You just have to go back to that greatness, find that one little light that's left."

Gaga: "I really wanted to break the mold of what modern touring is right now."

Gaga: "Please do not discount your mental health during this time. It is so important that you take care of what is in your head and in your heart."

Gaga: "Let the blood and the bruises define your legacy."

Gaga: "These are our victories and they should be celebrated. When people look back at this pandemic, I hope that they not only remember the lives we've lost, but they also remember the bravery of so many people. This is what makes human kindness so special."

Gaga: "Live your eyeliner, breathe your lipstick, and kill for each other."

Gaga: "I had this dream, and I really wanted to be a star. And I was almost a monster in the way that I was really fearless with my ambitions."

Gaga: "It's hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don't always know who to call. So I am very close to my family."

Gaga: "I don't like celebrities; I don't hang out with them; I don't relate to that life."

Gaga: "I don't like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I'm from New York. I will kill to get what I need."

Gaga: "My friends joke that I’m dead until I get onstage. I’m dead right now as you’re speaking to me."

Gaga: "I'm always on the market for a new friend, period. As your success continues to grow, you start to see who your real friends are. But I'm always looking for wonderful people to have in my life that have no agenda and aren't fake friends."

Gaga: "I'm half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times."

Gaga: "I don't like L.A. It's just not fun. I don't know why, but I just don't get it. You have to drive to get everywhere, and when it rains everybody freaks out."

Gaga: "What I've learned is that you really don't need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous."

Gaga: "If you were to ask me what I want to do - I don't want to be a celebrity, I want to make a difference."

Gaga: "I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way."

Gaga: "I've had grand pianos that are more expensive than, like, a year's worth of rent."

Gaga: "What I've discovered is that in art, as in music, there's a lot of truth-and then there's a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It's the moment that the audience falls in love."

Gaga: "You shouldn't have to have money to have a luxury fragrance."

Gaga: "All the awards in the world, you can get into all the nightclubs, they'll send you the nicest clothes. Nothing better than walking into your dad's restaurant and seeing a smile on his face and knowing that your mom and dad and your sister are real proud of you."

Gaga: "So there's nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who's cool hates - and then making it cool."

Gaga: "I had a boyfriend who told me I'd never succeed, never be nominated for a Grammy, never have a hit song, and that he hoped I'd fail. I said to him, 'Someday, when we're not together, you won't be able to order a cup of coffee at the f*cking deli without hearing or seeing me.'"

Gaga: "I spend my money on my props and my creations. I'm an inventor."

[Talking about understanding herself]

Gaga: "How do I make sense of myself when I feel this way? I make sense of it by going; this is a mental issue, I radically accept that I have it, and although I feel completely disconnected and offline, I am still going to pursue Wonderland. I'm still going to look for something that I do not have right now and maybe it's it is it through just simply trying. I think that being brave is hard but it's synonymous in many ways with trying."

Gaga: "When I get stuck in that, like, that trauma-response feedback in my brain, I have no concept of my body at all. I'm completely in my head."

Gaga: "To be honest, I went through a phase which [I] stand by - I stand by everything I've done, like when I am an old lady and I'm on my deathbed, I'll know that my legacy is authentic, because I've always made things that felt true to me."

Gaga: "Well, that's your opinion, isn't it? And I'm not about to waste my time trying to change it."

[On what past experience motivated her to be an artist]

Gaga: "The very thing that made me an artist, this wanting to heal my father, it's still with me, but now it's this positive thing where I know that I can't actually do it but the way in which I responded to it is has actually made me who I am, and I love who I am. I love that my way of dealing with my father's pain is that I write songs."

Gaga: "I love Dolce & Gabbana. I love Versace. I love the crazy, more eccentric stuff."

Gaga: "The fashion I've acquired over the years is so sacred to me - from costumes to couture, high fashion to punk wear I've collected from my secret international hot spots. I keep everything in an enormous archive in Hollywood. The clothes are on mannequins, also on hangers and in boxes with a photo of each piece, and there's a website where I can go to look through everything. It's too big - I could never sort through it myself! But these garments tell the stories of my life."