Quotes from Stormzy

I was MCing in the playground, spitting lyrics over mobile phones - Sony Ericsson, Walkmans, W810s, the Teardrop Nokia phones, all of that. Vital equipment! I never even had a DJ set where a DJ's playing vinyl, and I'm spitting.

Engineering was the safe and sensible choice, but music was what I loved and wanted to do.

In British music, you have indie, rock... Grime is now one of those pillars. It's a foundation of British music.

I know a lot of grime artists started off on pirate radio, but I missed that era; I was way too young.

I don't care if it's a white millionaire kid from Oxfordshire who comes to my show, buys my record, supports me and rates me. It's cool.

It was my dream to come to Oxford and study political science.

It's not always about convincing your parents of what you want to do, but just saying, 'This is what I'm doing; this is what I love.'

People always meet me and go, 'You're so much cooler than I thought you'd be,' and I'm like, 'What did you expect me to be like?'

In school, all my teachers and my mum were super routing for me to study at Oxford. I picked music as a career choice, and this didn't sit too well with them!

I went to pick up my nephew from primary school, and one of the teachers there stopped me and said, 'My son listens to you.' That's quite an awkward thing.

I'm on the rise and whatnot, but I'm not the man to say, 'All right, world, here's grime.' It's gonna take me, Skepta, JME, Novelist and Lethal Bizzle, to say, 'I'm sick, he's sick, he's sick, he's sick'. Not one man can do it.

People often link grime with other things, like street culture, and clashing, and MC battles and whatnot. But no one's ever talked in misogyny in grime. That's often linked to hip-hop, I know people talk about that is a problem in hip-hop. But not grime.

You read a book, write a detailed review as proof you've read it, and they give you a badge. That's where my competitive nature came out. Give me the badges! I would sit in the library all day, not 'cos I loved reading, just because I needed those badges.

If I'm not working on music, I'm usually with my friends playing FIFA. We just kick back - I'm proper chilled.

I like flipping Coldplay. And I like Jessie Ware. But I'm sure how we grew up was totally different.

Wiley has given me wise words a few times.

It's mad to think I was just a kid from south London, rapping in parks with friends.

I read so many books when I was a kid that I didn't even know were shaping me up.

There are thousands of people outside the O2 queuing up to see people like Skepta and JME.

When I'm good at something, I always try to be the best at it and claim that throne. Even in school, I never let anyone say anything to me; I would always be the smartest.

I need to just make as much noise and bang on as many doors as possible 'til men are, like, giving you the recognition.

My core is grime. But I make all kinds of music. Take Picasso. He could paint whatever way he liked. He could do a little ting with a felt tip if he wanted to - it's still going to be a bad boy Picasso at the end.

I'm not mad into raving, to be honest. If it's not music, I'm chilling. But most of the time, it's music.

I was doing without for so long, not knowing the things that are normal for musicians. I was getting bookings regardless, people phoning or emailing me direct, and journalists were writing about me anyway.