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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Personally, I wouldn't mind going on stage naked, totally naked.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sometimes it feels like my story overshadows my music.

I prefer things nice and simple.

I like romanticizing romance.

I'm a trained fine artist. I went to art school from the time I was 5 years old. I was, like, a prodigy out of Chicago. I'd been in national competitions from the age of 14.

I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.

All my favorite artists and fashion icons and models are from the Nineties. Everybody was just so fearless.