QUOTES by Benjamin Clementine
Find most favourite and famour Authors from A.A Milne to Zoe Kravitz.
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?
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
At home and in church - which I didn't go to a lot, I was very rebellious, but my family was strict Christians - they would ask us, 'What's the shortest verse in the Bible?' and I was the one who always said 'John 11:35' straightaway. It stayed with me: the Bible has stayed with me.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
Where I'm staying, near Lafayette Street, Bowery, and Houston, you get different people with different spirits, and that's what I like.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
People say my world is dark. No, there's a lot of lightness in my world. But I know very well that I'm not normal when I'm performing.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I found it quite pleasing to be alone from a very young age. The piano became my source of release.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
Most people think a song is a song - three minutes, and you're done. I don't think this way. Songs are my wings. They're what I use to fly. It's very important for me to put everything in the right place.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
Life is life. You have to learn how to forgive people and how to gain forgiveness for yourself.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I always see my music for its rewards rather than its awards. But I always thought if there was one award I'd want to win, it would be the Mercury.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
The greatest in heroes in life are the anonymous. That's what I believe. Your neighbours are heroes. People who, when you walk down the street, you see them feeding their little baby - these people are heroes because they are living under difficult situations, but they're still trying to save a life.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I personally wouldn't want my second album to sound like my first; it might sound very rocky or hard rock - and that wouldn't be melancholy. So if people think my music is melancholic, then so be it. It's meant to be uplifting, and I'm just basically saying what needs to be said.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
Because I didn't think anyone would actually listen to my music, I thought I could say whatever I wanted.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
When I first started singing in Paris, I sounded horrible: I was just singing to get some money to eat. And I wasn't singing my own songs: it was Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix. Eventually, when I wrote my own music, my style just came out of my own place.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
My parents always said that I would be a lawyer or pilot or doctor - and I always just thought that's what I would do.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I appreciate my city very much. When I go to America and Europe, and I tell everyone I'm from London, I'm proud.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I would describe myself as outspoken. Not political. Outspoken about what I want to say. There are things that need to be said... and I think it's my obligation to say them.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I accept the fact that angels are great heavenly beings, and I think some people give me the feeling that I'm with an angel.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I'm actually doing what I like doing, which is mixing opera music and classical music with soul and folk. And I was writing and talking about what I've actually experienced, and I don't think that's very common.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I was lucky to have read a lot of poetry when I was younger; it helped me to remember a way to write.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
If I'm being forced to do something I don't want to do, my real self comes out. But whether or not I'm aware of it, no matter what happens, I'm always going to have a fake self, and I'm not going to judge my fake self.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I'm from a middle class family, but my father squandered all the money, so I didn't really run around with rich people.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
I don't think I'm a singer, I think I'm an expressionist. But it takes time to put it in people's minds that this guy is not singing, 'Baby, I want to have you.' This guy is actually thinking about what he's saying. This guy has something to say.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
The minute I stop singing, I'm back to being shy. I'm soft-spoken because I never really talked to people. I didn't learn to do it.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine
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.
Quote by -Benjamin Clementine