Quotes from Ben Howard

I don't want to ruin my life with paparazzi and all of that.

When you first sit down to write songs, you have to be selfish.

I just write about myself all the time, which is a funny one, because I don't really like sharing much stuff with other people, apart from music.

A lot of the bars are really nice to me now because they've heard me on the radio.

We are taught these days that being famous is more important than actually doing something.

Just to get asked to a Ibiza Rocks is a big thing.

That's the biggest thing we're excited about: to be in America and have shows sell out is an incredible thing.

New York is one of my favorite places in the world, Brooklyn especially.

I have problems with guitars, I hammer away at it sometimes and I also do little intimate picks, I'm always looking at new guitars and little extra tweaks and stuff, I like to mix it up a bit.

It's nice to be the centre of attention among many women.

People have to learn... what do you really want from a live show? Do you want people to stand there and entertain you or to challenge themselves and you? It's live music, it's alive.

I think as soon as you start believing you're doing something superior to other people, then you start losing the plot.

I met Xavier Rudd at a surf festival in England.

I enjoy the sea more than I enjoy surfing.

Surfing and music have always been two separate sides of my life. I'm quite a fun-loving person most of the time, but I feel like I always get the serious side out when I'm playing music, and then I have fun the rest of the time when I get in the sea.

I like to think illegal downloads only do real damage to the endless amounts of careless pop music though.

I like slightly obscure places, where the waves may not be world class, but you can tie some culture in with your surf trip.

The only thing you can worry about is pleasing yourself and that's probably more impossible than pleasing other people.

We played a lot of live shows, we just kept plugging away and playing music and people kept coming back.

We'd get residencies in the local pubs. It was just an excuse to have a free tab at the bar, and then at some point people started chucking me a few quid for it. There was no game plan to any of it.

There was no grand scheme, no big push, there are things I would have done differently now but you make decisions on the hop and it takes you where you are.

Songs became little time periods of my life, little tales from certain periods, and you build these kingdoms and memories... they're all little personal relationships and places that I've stored in my head.

I find it funny how at British festivals there are such inflated egos. It's rare that I even talk to anyone at a lot of them.

I've been to some kind of weird places in America. I've been to Idaho.