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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

I wasn’t quite used to writing a diary – I didn’t understand why people did it – but I wrote down notes and they went into a poem.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Diaries People Writing
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
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
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 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
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
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
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.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Appreciate Believe Life Live
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
When you look at the media and television, and all this Hollywood stuff, you just judge people.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Judging Media People
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
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
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
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
[My music] is opposite to fashion.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Fashion Music Opposites
In fact, I might be confident for the human race because of what the human race has given me. When I was in the street and bars, people always came up to me and said, “Don’t stop, keep going.”
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Facts People Race
You can’t judge people by their cover.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Cover Judging People
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.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Judging Matter Real Self Something
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
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
Some people will never be able to get their real self, but that’s fine, because their fake self is also part of them.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

People Real Self Some
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
People take things too literal in the Bible and it’s totally wrong.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Literally People Totally Wrong
Confidence came from people. I think I’m very confident in me, as a human being.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Human People Thinking
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 know that New York is big, there are huge buildings, but in fact, it’s quite small and contained.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Building Country Facts
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

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Benjamin Clementine Quotes