'I should be in therapy' says Lady Gaga

Is there a theme to your new album, Born This Way?
Born This Way is my answer to many questions over the years: Who are you? What are you about? The most paramount theme on the record is me struggling to understand how I can exist as myself, as someone who lives halfway between fantasy and reality all the time.

What's it like to live between two people?
It's not two people. It's two worlds. Two aesthetics. For example, the religious themes that I explore on the album are not necessarily religious in an institutional way but are about being fascinated with characters. I was taught my whole life about Judas and Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene fascinates me because
she was, in my belief, both wholly human and wholly divine. So how can I be fully magical and fully human?

Are you a real person or part of a marketing machine?
It's kind of like saying, "Are you honest? Do you have integrity? Are you full of sh*t?" But listen, my social involvement for equality and gay rights, as well as my music, is completely genuine. But I don't think I ever want everyone to ever know fully who or what I am. Part of what I'm doing is asking you to look inside yourself, to ask yourself questions.

Have you been in therapy?
Not yet. But I probably should be. I have a close relationship with my family. I'm very close to my fans and I'm in tune with what they want. And I'm in tune with myself, too. At the end of the day, I have to look at myself in the mirror and I'm proud of everything I stand for. I have no reason to do or say anything unless it comes from my soul. I work very hard. I don't party very much. You don't see me falling out of nightclubs and buying Range Rovers. Social justice and music are the two paramount things in my life and I can't put it more plainly.

Where does sexuality fit in to that? Do you use it consciously?
Because I'm sexy? Well, I'm a woman. For the first two-and-a-half years of my career, I was considered to be the weird girl who dressed very crazy. I don't think I'm perceived as sexy.

You never felt sexy, even when first performing?
I felt like any other 15-year-old girl who's trying to figure it all out. I'm just like any other chick really. Did I view myself as a sexual being? I was very insecure for a very long time; I didn't know that I would be very comfortable with it and it wasn't until very recently that I actually enjoyed sex. I was talking with my sister about how it's not until you really love yourself that you can give love to others.

Are you addicted to your fans?
Yeah, well, it's it's very strange because there's really no line any more between where I begin and my fans begin. We are all one. I feel like I would die from a lack of inspiration if I didn't have them. I never want them to feel like I abandoned their culture. It's not about the money for me. I'd give all the money away if I had to choose between it and them.

That's a strange answer from a
multi-millionaire
Look, people who make music and get famous and then start to slow down and get lazy - they weren't in it for the music. I can't put out my music fast enough. I wanted to put this record out seven months ago. I'm not wallowing in some romanticised idea of what it means to be an "artiste". I'm a musician but also a visionary who cares about human rights because it affects my fans and that's my overarching life work now.

A foreign journalist just asked:
"How queer are you?" How did you feel about that?
I said, first of all, we don't really use that word here. But what he was really asking me was "How gay are you?" I'm off-the-charts gay! But that's not quite the way to put it. As if you are or you're not. It's not mathematical. It's this f***ing completely subjective overarching aesthetic called life and you have this huge palette to paint from and you're asking me "How queer are you?" That's just one palette. I say so many things in that song [Born This Way]. But the first thing everyone comes back with is, gaygaygay gaygay gaygay. Are you gay? Is the song gay? And you're missing what life is offering you because you're hinged on one word. Look into yourself. Are you born to be brave? To rebuke all of these labels?

Do you address yourself as Lady Gaga when you talk to yourself in your head?
I do. Not as Stefani. It's Gaga. Stefani is who I am, too, but I'm Gaga all the time. [Pauses] Wait, I lost my train of thought talking about the four different people that I am.

Do you consider yourself a trend?
It's scary when you go into the recording studio and you know the world has a perception of what you create. I have to write myself a freaking letter: "Dear You, nobody can tell you who you are. You are who you decide to be." And then I can create music.