“Music was my ultimate ambition but I liked all of it. I wanted to discipline myself in dance and acting too and I’d done all three since I was 9-years-old. I could sing, but I didn’t become a great singer.”

Here in England, everyone’s a pop star, innit, whereas in America they believe in the term artist.

I’m not a natural born performer.

I just dress like… I’m an old black man. Sorry! Like I’m an old Jewish black man. I just dress like it’s still the ’50s.

I don’t think your ability to fight has anything to do with how big you are. It’s to do with how much anger is in you.

I read a lot when I’m travelling and always have a couple of books on the go.

I’m happiest with my family around me.

I told you I was trouble, you know that I’m no good.

The jazz I love is sweet and pure with raw elements, which is exactly what the good hip-hop is doing now.

Relationship doesn’t remain, We resonate on different flames, I could cut you down again, If you were like all other men, If you were like all other men, I know that I could shut you down again

I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist, but I don’t like girls pretending to be stupid because it’s easier.

Some men do think I’m a psycho bunny-boiler.

It’s too much of a drinking culture, everything tastes better with a drink. Like, watch TV: glass of wine. Cooking dinner: glass of champagne. White wine vinegar hasn’t got white wine in it. Has it?

I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.

I had a real stage school voice and I could do loud things, but it’s not about being loud, it’s about sensitivity and subtlety in music. You can do so much more with a quiet voice than with a belter.

Life’s short. Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there is no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands and buts.

Girls talk to each other like men talk to each other. But girls have an eye for detail.

You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice.

Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.

Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.

In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength.

A dancer must listen to his body and pay homage to it. Behind the movement lies this terrible, driving passion, this necessity. I won’t settle for anything less.

It is about learning to move with your grief, and dance.

Telling each other the truth and being who we are, and having space for the other person’s vulnerability in being who they are, allows us to move in a kind of dance together that’s very fluid and graceful.

The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it.