Benjamin Clementine

“Not all families stay together.”

“I know that New York is big - there are huge buildings - but, in fact, it's quite small and contained... I like it when cities are melancholic. When it started snowing, for example, I felt very lonely. I felt very comfortable and very relaxed. When that happens, I write. So I've been writing, not a lot, but I'm inspired every day.”

“Life is life. You have to learn how to forgive people and how to gain forgiveness for yourself.”

“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.”

“Music isn't a competition.”

“I appreciate my city very much. When I go to America and Europe, and I tell everyone I'm from London, I'm proud.”

“I adopted this feeling that the stage is my home, so just keep my coat on and not wear anything else.”

“I was lucky to have read a lot of poetry when I was younger; it helped me to remember a way to write.”

“In Paris, I was really singing for the sake of living. But eventually people said, 'Keep going; you've got a great voice,' and I started having confidence in my voice all of a sudden. That's when I started creating my own music.”

“Poetry itself is music. I'm just lucky that I can convert it into music. William Blake is my favorite poet of all time, and he said that he wasn't quite familiar with the sounds of music. If so, he would have been a musician. All of his poems are all like songs, and that's how I always try to start my thoughts.”

“Where you're from shapes you, but you can actually do whatever you want.”

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

“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.”

“I'm from London, and you hardly see stars because of the pollution of light. But in Arizona, there's nothing, so I can see the stars.”

“I've learned in the little bit of my life so far that you can't fool people. And so I only tell people what I think about: my ambitions, my dreams, what inspires me.”

“Fame is like icin' on the cake.”

“When I was a kid, I remember seeing Michael Jackson. I thought he was an alien. You don't grow up to be like Michael Jackson. I'm not saying I'm Michael Jackson, but Mercury Prizes are for aliens, basically. So I was very chuffed that I got nominated, and then I won.”

“I'm a very honest person, and I'm quite emotional for a man. If I want to say something, I'll say it.”

“I clearly remember my father cutting our jumpers and our sports clothes with scissors - because he didn't want us to wear jogging bottoms and hoodies. He thought that would somehow set the police on us.”

“I never thought I'd say this, but to any child listening, the world is your oyster.”