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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

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 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
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
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
There’s a part in every person that has a fake self. We’ve had this since infancy due to our parents and our upbringing.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Fake Parent Self Upbring
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
You can’t judge people by their cover.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

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

Fashion Music Opposites
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 you have a lot of fake selves, most of the time it’s because you haven’t had parents around so you try to build characters to protect yourself.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Character Fake Parent Protect Self
Poetry itself is music. I’m just lucky that I can convert it into music.
BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Convert Itself Lucky Music
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 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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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