DAVID FURNISH

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

Fear and ignorance fuel so much homophobia.

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.

I'm a great pop culture lover, and I'm not a snob.

I had a lot of failed relationships, a lot of unhappiness, a lot of shame and embarrassment, bad self-image stuff.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Putin is lovely.

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.

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.

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

I was definitely teased and bullied in my junior school.

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

I was neeeever a cool kid.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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