David Furnish Quotes

My parents have been married for 50-plus years, and I wanted to have what they had.

Kids will often see something different and feel insecure about it because they don’t understand it.

A good art collection is emblematic of the people collecting it.

Unfortunately, celebrity is a powerful thing. It can influence people, but if it can influence people in a good way, then that’s a great thing.

We all live by example.

People don’t ask me for my autograph.

I studied really, really hard, rather boringly.

I gravitate toward contemporary art. I love great paintings, sculpture, photography, some video art.

Knowing your HIV status is so important for your future health and that of your loved ones.

I like Madonna‘s music but not her movies. She should stick to what she is good at.

I think if you have an opportunity to live by example and make people aware of positive changes in our society, I think it’s a great thing.

I love diamond jewellery on men, and pocket scarves, cravats, cufflinks. The trick is to throw it together so it’s natural and not contrived. That’s real style.

We have a lot of great lesbian role models in tennis. I mean, Martina Navratilova in her heyday was probably the greatest female athlete on the planet. Martina just kept breaking every rule. That’s a great role model.

When you’re in a relationship with a very famous person, you have to make compromises.

I ran away from small-town Canada to London; I ran away from my family because I didn’t think I could be the person I was.

I think people get fearful of things they don’t know or understand.

The past is past; what’s gone on has gone on.

You have to acknowledge that films that have a strong concept and are easily marketed to people are the ones that stand the biggest chance of success.

If we can make HIV testing a normal part of looking after your health, we can truly envisage an AIDs-free future in the U.K.

It’s very important in any relationship that one partner doesn’t lose themselves in the other, and that’s very easy if you’re involved with a celebrity.

The reality is, if a woman is married to man with a title, she gets a title. I think everybody should have the same opportunities and the same privileges and the same honours.

Out of ignorance and fear comes judgment and division.

I am for 100% equality across the board for everybody, in all walks of life.

I’m always very proud when people ask me about being a Canadian.

One of the reasons Elton and I entered into our partnership – the first day it became legal in Britain to do so – is that we felt it was an opportunity to protect ourselves with official recognition of our relationship.

When you get the high art of William Shakespeare and the greatest love story ever told, and you collision crash it with the low art of the tacky garden gnome, you’re going to have lots and lots of opportunity for fun and putting your tongue very firmly in your cheek.

I think we all need to believe in hope: that if we have dreams and if we have ambitions and if we have skills and talents – that if you really put your heart into something and you work at it hard enough – that you can make your dreams come true.

I haven‘t done much art shopping in Vegas. It tends to be from galleries that are London- or L.A.- or New York-based. We’ve never had someone standing over our shoulder telling us something is a good investment.

I was definitely teased and bullied in my junior school.

I can’t say to Elton, ‘Hey, let’s walk around the corner and have a coffee.’ Someone as well-known as that can’t go anywhere in the world without being recognised. Elton has written the soundtrack to a lot of people’s lives, so they feel a kinship with him, so they come up, and that does colour things.

If you look at ‘Gnomeo & Juliet,’ the movie‘s message essentially says it doesn’t matter if you’re a ‘red‘ or a ‘blue‘: at the end of the day, parents should love their children and want what’s best for them.

Everyone should be tested. Whenever they have a check-up, they should test for HIV, because if we can get to a point in our society where everyone is automatically tested, nobody will fall through the net.

Putin is lovely.

I’d spent my twenties trying to be everything to everybody. I had my family, my straight friends, and I was starting to develop a gay circle of friends. I was seeing some men, seeing some women, and trying to sort it all out.

I’ve had many friends over the years who have been in same-sex relationships, and the family denies hospital visitations when one is sick. Or when the estate is settled and people who have built a life together has everything taken away from them either by the families or the taxman.

I think if we could just level the playing field in life as much as possible, then we’d all be in a much better place.

We want to make sure that our boys realize that there are all different kinds of families, and all families are great.

It’s interesting how Rod Stewart can father a child at 65, and a straight, single footballer named Cristiano Ronaldo can arrange to have a surrogate have a baby, and neither of them receives any criticism.

Fear and ignorance fuel so much homophobia.

People go forward in life. Bitterness and grudges and resentments only poison it.

When 1.2 million people come together for Pride in Toronto, that’s great, but we now need to start paying it forward and thinking about the rest of the world.

We absolutely need more role models. I think we need more people to come forward and be proud of who they are.

When Stephen Harper was elected as the new Conservative Prime Minister – and he talked about repealing gay marriage and putting it to a vote in the House of Commons – Elton and I talked about getting married in Canada to make a statement, for ideological and political reasons.

Animation films are about entertainment and about fun for the whole family, and if you went too far down a dark path, it’s not what people, I think, expect from a great animated film.