Benjamin Clementine

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 I'm staying, near Lafayette Street, Bowery, and Houston, you get different people with different spirits, and that's what I like. ”

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. ”

It's my only freedom, music, and I'm not going to give it up to anyone else. ”

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. ”

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. ”

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

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

The fact is, it wasn't enjoyable being in secondary school. I was a weird kid. ”

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. ”