Music isn't a competition.
— Benjamin Clementine
I always try to be as discreet as possible, so I wear black.
I don't have a flat anywhere. I'm registered in the U.K. for tax purposes, I suppose, and my mail goes to my parents.
I realised that we're all equal - it's all about helping each other.
I just want us to understand each other. That's the point of my music.
I never thought I'd say this, but to any child listening, the world is your oyster.
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.
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.
Not all families stay together.
I like black a lot because I can't really see colors - so I wear a lot of dark-colored clothes. You've got to be aware of what you're wearing because you might become that.
My heroes: Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Nina Simone.
I've learned my lessons, but I'm also still learning them.
If you have parents who can't show you love, a kid can grow up to look arrogant. Because they need to create a fake self. Or they think they're more powerful than they really are.
There are things that need to be said... and I think it's my obligation to say them.
Now I'm standing in front of a thousand people. They're all looking at me, but they're sitting down. They're surrendered, so I have to keep on proving myself to them and giving them all my passion.
I didn't blend well with my classmates or my teachers.
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?
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.
I'm a very honest person, and I'm quite emotional for a man. If I want to say something, I'll say it.
It's my only freedom, music, and I'm not going to give it up to anyone else.
Paris is very dear to me, and I'll never forget Paris.
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.
I'm literally nowhere yet... When things started going well, this French designer called Ami gave me some shoes and clothes to wear. But when I sat down to play the piano, the very new shoes kept slipping off the pedal. So I took them off, threw them away, and have never worn shoes while playing the piano from then on.
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.
In this life, I've learned to be patient. And I'm still learning... Even now, I wish things would go quicker.
My music isn't mainstream music.
When I lived in Paris, I would shop at antique shops and buy these huge coats because I was very cold. And then I started performing in them because I felt safe. I never stopped doing that.
I dedicate all my time to music. And I'm glad that it's paying off in some ways.
The fact is, it wasn't enjoyable being in secondary school. I was a weird kid.
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.
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.
Where you're from shapes you, but you can actually do whatever you want.
People want a beautiful story. Hopefully my life story is still beautiful, but that metro stuff doesn't make it much more pitiful.
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.
When I think about Edmonton, Silver Street and Pymmes Park, the old people whose faces are so unhappy, it pushes me to be better. I want to be better to help places like this.
I started writing music in a French way: more focused on lyrics than melody.
I do music to tell people my thoughts and opinions about life, emotions, politics, everything.
I grew up as a man because I was by myself.
I adopted this feeling that the stage is my home, so just keep my coat on and not wear anything else.
Fame is like icin' on the cake.
Arizona - I've only spent a few days there, but it's inspired me the most. It's so peaceful.
I got into a lot of trouble. Maybe that's why my parents didn't really like me and I didn't blend in with my family. I was always the naughty one.
People don't always realize that as a performer, you've got to relive those moments. Memories crash through your brains, and you've got to think about your past and the reason why you wrote the song. All that emotion comes back.
When I was very young, my brother and I, we used to go into charity shops to buy suits. The thing about clothes is that people judge you by what you wear, unfortunately. So when we wore suits, people gave us respect - we were very young, and it made them think we were older.
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.
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.
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 personally don't know what nerves are. I don't get scared when I'm going to play music. But I think something, maybe my fears, are buried into my songs. Because I'm singing them.
I wanted to find people who were like me, and I did, in the people I was reading.
I was on the train; I did play, but I also played in bars, in the streets, at birthday parties for people who discovered me on the train.
