Benjamin Clementine

“I always try to be as discreet as possible, so I wear black.”

“If I weren't musical, then I would have just published a book, you know? But I'm lucky enough to play piano, and so I use piano to convert my poems.”

“I know, deep down, that what makes my music what it is are my words. It always starts from me wanting to say something. Once I've run out of things to say, I'll be done.”

“I realised that we're all equal - it's all about helping each other.”

“With this sort of career, you need determination. You've got to sacrifice a lot of things: family, friends - not that I had any - but you sacrifice everything.”

“If I win the Mercury Prize, I'll be very honoured. If I don't win it, I won't have lost it. Someone else will have won it. And that will also be good.”

“We always blame other people when things go wrong. For example, family to friends, you think they'll stay by your side, and you realise they never do. But that's life.”

“Arizona - I've only spent a few days there, but it's inspired me the most. It's so peaceful.”

“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.”

“If you live in central London, that's probably fine for you, but in places like Edmonton, where you're almost out of sight of London, you've got to pay more and more to get into central London. How does that work?”

“I dedicate all my time to music. And I'm glad that it's paying off in some ways.”

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

“Why are there not cabs in Edmonton? Why are there cabs in central London but not here? And if they're going to be here, they should be cheaper. And travelcards, they're expensive.”

“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 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 wanted to find people who were like me, and I did, in the people I was reading.”

“Honestly, I still don't know a lot of artists, and I want to keep it that way for a while. I think that's why I might be quite original.”

“I just wanted to eat, to survive. I started singing a cappella in bars. I saved up money to get my first guitar and started writing songs.”

“My heroes: Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Nina Simone.”

“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.”