“People sometimes ask if I want to be a solo artist, but it just wouldn’t be any fun being on your own.”

It’s so amazing to hear a crowd of people singing one of your songs. It’s the best feeling.

The feather was a thing, when I was a kid, we used to find feathers around the house, and whenever we found them, my mum used to say it was my nan leaving them around for us to find, so that was quite sweet.

I had a few dating disasters along the way with girls cheating on me. One girl was the inspiration for me singing ‘Cry Me A River’ on ‘The X Factor.’ That was my payback to her because she was unfaithful.

It’s important to have a life outside the band.

On our American tour bus, the bunks are a bit taller so that we don’t bash our heads. On the English bus, we bash our heads every morning. It’s not the best thing to do first thing when you wake up.

I think I’ve changed a little bit. I don’t know whether it’s for the better or for the worse at the moment. I’ve settled into a different mind frame now… being a bit wilder maybe!

I think the whole thing, boy band, it’s a little bit of a dirty word. They say it’s not a good thing to be in a boy band. We want to change that. We want to make the boy band cool. It’s not just about dancing and dressing the same.

I’ve still got both kidneys, but one doesn’t work, so I have to be careful not to drink too much, even water, and I have to keep myself as healthy as possible.

I had a test on my kidneys a few weeks back and found out I have two.

I was always called Payne or Payno.

We’ve always described our sound as a bit more guitar driven than normal pop music. Kind of Pink in a boy band form. We’ve heard a few people say that so now we use it. I think Pink is amazing person to be compared to.

I was bullied by a few people who were much older than me. I went to camp to learn boxing. I was 12, and my coach was 24. I felt like if I could fight him, I could stand up to anyone.

Being a fan of someone’s show and the way they still hold a family together doesn’t mean I am OK with all they say.

When you have more than two people working together, it gets a bit unfocused as an idea.

Please don’t throw phones. They hurt. And we sell them on eBay.

When I was born, I was effectively dead. Weird, I know. The doctors couldn’t get any reaction from me, so I had to be brought round, and although it seemed like I was okay, there were underlying problems.

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

You don’t necessarily have to write to be a poet. Some people work in gas stations and they’re poets. I don’t call myself a poet, because I don’t like the word. I’m a trapeze artist.

An artist has got to be careful never really to arrive at a place where he thinks he’s AT somewhere. You always have to realize that you’re constantly in a state of becoming. And, as long as you can stay in that realm you’ll sort of be alright.

My weakness has always been to prefer the large intention of an unskilful artist to the trivial intention of an accomplished one: in other words, I am more interested in the high ideas of a feeble executant than in the high execution of a feeble thinker.

I feel it’s my job to continue being a student of music if I want to continue being an artist and a producer of other artists. You have to keep filling your mind with other music. You have to be ahead of the curve.

I love artists like Prince, who hold on to that element of mystery.

The pioneer scientist must have “a vivid intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction, but by artistically creative imagination.”

I listen to different artists. I open my mind to different artists.