Quotes from Passenger

I started busking when I was 24. I was living with Mom and Dad. I'd broken up with my girlfriend and didn't know what I was doing with my life, and I thought, 'Well, this is the last shot - I'm going busking, and let's see what happens.'

Ed Sheeran is a good mate of mine, and he just flies around the place doing every single bit of promo or gig or interview, and it's no wonder that when you combine that with immense talent that he's playing in stadiums and arenas around the world.

My dad's from New Jersey, so I used to go to America a lot. I feel like it is a second home.

I can headline a festival and then literally, 10 minutes later, be walking around, and nobody notices.

If you go back to early folk, it's all storytelling; that's exactly what it is: some guy telling a story in a pub to 50 people with a guitar, you know.

I think whenever I've thought something might go well, it hasn't, and when I've thought, 'Oh yeah, just chuck it out there,' that's when it kicks off, so now, I don't claim to understand anything.

You only know you love her when you let her go.

You have to play to your strengths, and my strength is the amount of content I create.

Maybe when I was a kid, when you have those crazy dreams about what music is going to be like - a string of No. 1 hits, a limo, and a fairground in your back garden - and then you start as a musician, and you realize very, very quickly, that's not how things work. So I just let go of all that stuff.

Some people expect me to have changed overnight because of one big song.

Before it happened to me, I'd look at other people who had become really successful and think, 'What a dream. That must be absolutely everything they ever wanted.' When it does happen to you, you realize yes, it's incredible. But it also comes with a bit of a weird aftertaste.

Busking is the essence of what I do. It's made everything possible.

Busking taught me so much on so many levels, not just about being a musician or writing songs - actually about growing up and being a human!