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 CLEMENTINEThat’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 CLEMENTINEWilliam 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 CLEMENTINEWhen you look at the media and television, and all this Hollywood stuff, you just judge people.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINEI was lucky to have read a lot of poetry when I was younger; it helped me to remember a way to write.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINEI 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 CLEMENTINEConfidence came from people. I think I’m very confident in me, as a human being.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINEI 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 CLEMENTINEThe 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 CLEMENTINEI 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 CLEMENTINESome people will never be able to get their real self, but that’s fine, because their fake self is also part of them.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINEIf 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 CLEMENTINEI’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 CLEMENTINEWe’re all competent in different ways, we’ve just got to find a way to push ourselves up more.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINEWhen 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 CLEMENTINEWhen 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 CLEMENTINEIf 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