Quotes from Benjamin Clementine

Music is the reason I started talking to people. When I started singing in bars and trains, I began to learn the behaviour of people. Music was the bait that helped me get something from them and give myself to them.

The greatest in heroes in life are the anonymous. That's what I believe. Your neighbours are heroes. People who, when you walk down the street, you see them feeding their little baby - these people are heroes because they are living under difficult situations, but they're still trying to save a life.

I found it quite pleasing to be alone from a very young age. The piano became my source of release.

The thing is: I was quite slow when I was younger. I might have been smart - I don't know - but I was slow talking to people. And as you can see, I don't talk very loud.

If I'm being forced to do something I don't want to do, my real self comes out. But whether or not I'm aware of it, no matter what happens, I'm always going to have a fake self, and I'm not going to judge my fake self.

I started writing music in a French way: more focused on lyrics than melody.

I always see my music for its rewards rather than its awards. But I always thought if there was one award I'd want to win, it would be the Mercury.

I'm from a middle class family, but my father squandered all the money, so I didn't really run around with rich people.

I believe when the music is being sung or being played, at the end of it, there's some sort of grace and understanding. And that's all I want for humanity. I just want us to understand each other. That's the point of my music.

I got into a lot of trouble. Maybe that's why my parents didn't really like me and I didn't blend in with my family. I was always the naughty one.

When I was very young, my brother and I, we used to go into charity shops to buy suits. The thing about clothes is that people judge you by what you wear, unfortunately. So when we wore suits, people gave us respect - we were very young, and it made them think we were older.

When I think about Edmonton, Silver Street and Pymmes Park, the old people whose faces are so unhappy, it pushes me to be better. I want to be better to help places like this.

It stayed with me - the Bible has stayed with me. I've grown out of it because, obviously, you live life for yourself and have your choice to believe what you want to believe in, but I know that the Bible can be used to appreciate life.

Where I'm staying, near Lafayette Street, Bowery, and Houston, you get different people with different spirits, and that's what I like.

There are things that need to be said... and I think it's my obligation to say them.

The meaning of love is obviously huge - but for me, it means be nice to people, and people will be nice to you back. Love is a selfless place to be. There is no safer place to be than under the canopy of love.

I personally wouldn't want my second album to sound like my first; it might sound very rocky or hard rock - and that wouldn't be melancholy. So if people think my music is melancholic, then so be it. It's meant to be uplifting, and I'm just basically saying what needs to be said.

When I lived in Paris, I would shop at antique shops and buy these huge coats because I was very cold. And then I started performing in them because I felt safe. I never stopped doing that.

I'm actually doing what I like doing, which is mixing opera music and classical music with soul and folk. And I was writing and talking about what I've actually experienced, and I don't think that's very common.

I was on the train; I did play, but I also played in bars, in the streets, at birthday parties for people who discovered me on the train.

I do music to tell people my thoughts and opinions about life, emotions, politics, everything.

I would describe myself as outspoken. Not political. Outspoken about what I want to say. There are things that need to be said... and I think it's my obligation to say them.

At home and in church - which I didn't go to a lot, I was very rebellious, but my family was strict Christians - they would ask us, 'What's the shortest verse in the Bible?' and I was the one who always said 'John 11:35' straightaway. It stayed with me: the Bible has stayed with me.

Studying music involves a lot of mathematics and a lot of exercises of memory. Or you've got to be able to be like somebody, to play like somebody, to play Mozart's music the way he played it and how he intended it. You've got to make it perfect, and that's not what I want to do. Although it is beautiful.