PETE BURNS

On reflection, I think the 1980s were a dreadful, abysmal time.

I've never had my heart broken.

There was one point where my mother was dying of lung cancer, and a journalist dressed up as a nurse and got in the house to get a picture of her, dying of lung cancer and stuff like that, and then you realise the fame's not all it's cracked up to be.

I have regular peels and Botox. It's something I'll always do. People redecorate their homes every few years, and I see this as no different. Changing my face is like buying a new sofa.

I had piercings all over my face, which did look dreadful, but I got them done while waiting for my husband Michael to get a tattoo. I was bored.

Surely, marriage is throwing anchor and saying, 'This is where I'm staying. I've made my choice, and this is all I want because I've been on the up and down escalator, through the revolving door, and I want to stand still.' That's what I expected.

I never had posters on my walls, and I didn't have any icons, either. I come from a small village in Wirral, and my family didn't watch TV. I wasn't exposed to people with icon status. David Bowie popped up, but I had already shaved my eyebrows off by the time I saw his.

There's not a part of me, apart from the soles of my feet, which has not had work done.

How did I write 'Spin Me?' I listened to Luther Vandross's 'I Wanted Your Love.'

You shouldn't inflict yourself on the public when your fifteen minutes is up.

In 1997, a severe depression hit me, but I didn't respond well to anti-depressants.

I don't wanna look like a 65-year-old geezer, you know, and I can't really see it happening.

The idea of travelling all over the world singing the same songs sounds like hell. How people like Tina Turner still do it with enthusiasm is beyond me.

I collect items like Elvis Presley clock radios and '50s memorabilia. It inspires a lot of my imagery. I like tasteful trash.

What I'm trying to achieve with my surgery is my own personal satisfaction. It's narcissism.

From a child, I knew I didn't have the face I wanted to have. My mother was a baroness. She was from Berlin; she was a silent movie actress and friends with Marlene Dietrich. So she knew all about film make-up and prosthetics and stuff like that and what they used to do in those days. And she taught me all that as a child.

The amount of surgeries I've had are absolutely minimal compared to the reconstructive surgeries I've had. Probably 300.

I view marriage as a sacred institution. I think two men naturally are predators. Gay relationships are a commercial break, not a whole movie.

If people don't think I can fall into what the norm is, that's their problem and not mine. I'm not the norm; I'm not deluded.

It was a lovely feeling, dying. I can remember being in the hospital, all wired up to tubes and thinking, 'If only you'd take these tubes out, it feels so nice.' It felt so - it felt like being in a bath of velvet. It was such a nice feeling. Everything felt so soft and floppy, and I wanted to go.

The trouble is that people are all too ready to jump to conclusions about anybody who they think looks a bit strange. They think you must be mentally subnormal.

I'm not a camp, throwaway queen; I'm not in Neverland. I'm not Jennifer Lopez with three people to pluck my eyebrows. I've made myself what I want to be - not everybody's cup of tea. And people wanna have a look at me. I fully accept that. People have always wanted to have a look at me.

What a lot of people don't realise about me is that I have no idea what's going on in the media. I don't pay any attention to it, as I consider it mind pollution. The last time I touched a computer was in 2001, and my phone is too old to use the Internet. I just don't enter into it at all on any level.

I'm not really the sort to reflect or look forward. I prefer concentrating on the now.

I never have crushes, apart from my husband Michael, I guess, because I was obsessed with him, and I didn't speak to him for nearly a year. I kept going into the restaurant where he worked to look at him.