I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

It's not essential for me to have a big debut week; it's not essential for me to have big radio records.

It's hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.

I don't intend to stop making music.

I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer's block.

I don't ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing 'cos that's just... that's just telling yourself a lie.

I need to know how many records I've sold, how many album equivalents from streaming, which territories are playing my music more than others, because it helps me in conversations about where we're gonna be playing shows or where I might open a retail location, like a pop-up store or something.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, 'No, I'm just going to write what I feel I should write.'

I worked my face off.

I've gotten used to being Frank Ocean.

I can operate in half-a-song format.

I can't usually stomach a project after I finish it, but for those days and weeks and months that it's new to me, I do listen to it, and it might change over time, but it's about function.

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.

I might just write a novel next. I don't know!

I grew up in New Orleans. I had just moved into my dorm at the University of New Orleans, and I was doing laundry, and my mom called me, like, 'We've got to evacuate. There's a hurricane's coming.'

I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.

Of course awards matter.

I guess I'm just inspired to tell stories.

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people.

Because I'm not in a record deal, I don't have to operate in an album format.

I'm in this business to be creative - I'll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.

All in all, I just don't trust journalists - and I don't think it's a good practice for me to trust journalists.

My music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.

As a writer, as a creator, I'm giving you my experiences. But just take what I give you. You ain't got to pry beyond that.

I feel like I was writing as I was learning to talk. Writing was always a go-to form of communication. And I knew I could sing from being in tune with the radio.

Sometimes I'm fascinated with how famous my work could be while I'm not so famous.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

I make pop culture.

I was drinking so much coffee and Red Bull just to keep going it screwed me.

The Conservative party now exists largely to misinform the public, to convince voters struggling through austerity that they have the same interests as billionaires and corporations.

I'm not Russell Brand or Ricky Gervais, but I have enough money that I don't have to work. Most people who've done what I do don't have that.

It's always easier to dismiss other people than to go through the awkward and time consuming process of understanding them.

If you're an activist trying to do something important, I salute you. Most of us just give ourselves ethical brownie points for watching Channel 2 instead of Channel 3, like characters in a broad dystopian satire.

Let's not forget that the essential message of a Republican candidate is a tricky sell. That you love America, but hate all the groups that make up America. That you love democracy, but hate people.

Trump's one liberal policy seems to be his desire to pump more funding into mental health - which I've taken the liberty of interpreting as a massive cry for help.

If we can look at another human being and categorise them as 'illegal,' or that chilling American word 'alien,' then what has become of our own humanity?

I don't think I'm angry. I'm horrified - powered by horror.

I've been studying Israeli army martial arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back.

The Labour party has, from the beginning, been made up of diverse factions; that's its beauty - asking it to become cohesive is like trying to find one shampoo that will care for the hair of everybody in Angelina Jolie's house.

I just want to do something that I feel makes a difference.

People think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well. If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well... that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.

On channels terrified of accusations of bias, or political retribution, comics making jokes about the growing power base of far-right politicians aren't taking the 'easy' route.

Sectarianism is a real problem, but it should be addressed by people engaging with each other - reconciliation.

The Tories have been offering us a cocktail of incompetence and malice and Labour haven't done anything to draw attention to it. It's been like watching Mesut Ozil drop perfect crosses on to the head of an increasingly frustrated Stephen Hawking.

There's been a thread of coverage implying that Corbyn is a decent guy but he clearly doesn't understand how the world works. Ignoring the fact that for the majority of people, it doesn't.

I think we live in a country that sometimes forgets how effective the rule of law is, perhaps because our governments have often found it inconvenient.

I'm actually all for political correctness. If you want to work to change the usage of a word that's discriminatory then fine, I'm behind you. But that's a conversation that needs to be had in the culture. You can't just decide that commonly used parts of a language are evil and that the people who didn't get the memo must be bad people.

I don't believe I'm a recovering alcoholic - I'm someone who used to drink. AA comes from a religious movement and that whole thing of 'I'm always burdened with this' and the original sin idea. It's not like that for me.

I want to be a part of a vibrant culture and have a more open culture.

Consumer culture needs us to be impulsive, while our political culture fears that we will ever develop discipline.