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Poetry itself is music. I’m just lucky that I can convert it into music.

Benjamin Clementine

I like it when cities are melancholic. When it started snowing for example, I felt very lonely. I felt very comfortable and very relaxed. When that happens, I write. So I’ve been writing, not a lot, but I’m inspired everyday.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Cities Comfortabel Example Lonely Writing
I was very rebellious, but my family was strict Christians – they would ask us, “What’s the shortest verse in the Bible?” and I was the one who always said “John 11:35” straightaway. It stayed with me, the Bible has stayed with me.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Christian Family Rebellious
I loved English literature – if didn’t it would have been hard – but I had to learn it myself. I remembered ways to repeat words, to put more emphasis on certain lines.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Lines Literature Way
If you’ve got great parents, once you grow up and have to live by yourself, you’re going to create some fake self as you get comfortable wherever you are.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Fake Growing Self Up
I’m from a middle class family but my father squandered all the money, so I didn’t really run around with rich people. I was very judgmental towards a lot of them.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Class Father Running
When I started writing again, especially when I listened to French music and Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, I realized that these lots talked about themselves. The greatest artists, they didn’t sing; they only spoke.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Artist Listen Writing
You can’t judge people by their cover.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Cover Judging People
Poetry itself is music. I’m just lucky that I can convert it into music.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Convert Itself Lucky Music
I was independent. There was no one there to talk to; I didn’t even want to talk to anyone. I started to write about what I was experiencing, and I had no choice, so I was never scared.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Anymore Experience Independent Talk Write
I was lucky to have read a lot of poetry when I was younger; it helped me to remember a way to write.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Lucky Way Writing
[My music] is opposite to fashion.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Fashion Music Opposites
I know that New York is big, there are huge buildings, but in fact, it’s quite small and contained.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Building Country Facts
Composing was more difficult than writing things down.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Difficult Down Things Writing
That’s how I always try to start my thoughts. I write them down first, eventually it turns into a poem, and if I feel like composing something to it, then I do that.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Firsts Like Poem Trying Writing
Even if someone thinks there’s a mistake I’ve made on the piano, to me it’s not a mistake; it’s how it’s meant to be.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Mistake Piano Thinking
I think it is all about creating characters, mixing them up with the stars and the light-years, and coming back to Earth, because we’re from this universe. We’re not just New York or London; we’re stars.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Character Country Earth Stars
We have the real self and the false self, there’s nothing wrong with them, and everyone has both of them.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Everyone False Nothing Real Self
The experience that I had in Paris I could never have ever again in my life. This is when I grew up as a young man.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Independent Men Writing
We’re all competent in different ways, we’ve just got to find a way to push ourselves up more.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Competent Different Ourselves Way
I’m not dismissing prostitutes, but a lot has changed. This so-called gentrification, it can never be stopped.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Changed Gentrification Prostitute Stop
William Blake is my favorite poet of all time, and he said that he wasn’t quite familiar with the sounds of music. If so, he would have been a musician.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Favorite Musician Poet Sound
Confidence came from people. I think I’m very confident in me, as a human being.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Human People Thinking
People take things too literal in the Bible and it’s totally wrong.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Literally People Totally Wrong
When I started singing about my life and what I was going through, I felt more confident. It was my own life, I was being myself, I was telling people what was happening.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Being Myself People Singing
The real self is who you are when you’re at home, when you’re comfortable, and the false self is what you’re pretending – and the reason you pretend is because you want to create a character for the surroundings you’re within.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Character Home Real Reason Surround
I felt like I was homeless anyway, so the change in environment wasn’t that much of a big deal. I felt pretty much the same. After six months of living on the streets [in Camden], I started singing, busking.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Dead Environment Months Singing Six
I started understanding William Blake and George Orwell more and more. It’s amazing how we go to school when we’re so young, read all of these books, just trying to memorize them. When you start to live, you don’t have to memorize anything.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Book School Understanding

Poetry itself is music. I’m just lucky that I can convert it into music.

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Poetry itself is music. I’m just lucky that I can convert it into music.

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