Craig David
I recognise life is like a magnet. Positive and negative are on the opposite sides of the magnet. You can try to cut the negative part off, but it's still there. When you accept both of them, it's like, 'You know what? Don't get too identified with success or too identified with failure - just be cool with them.'Collection: Failure
I grew up in Southampton. My mum was a shop assistant; my dad was a carpenter. They broke up when I was eight.Collection: Dad
That whole 'Bo' Selecta!' thing was damaging. I played along with it; I said it was cool, I can take a joke, roll with it, so I went on the show. But it was killing me.Collection: Cool
With every person you meet, there is a new and exciting experience to be had.Collection: Experience
If I can be an advocate for people to get healthy, that's good, and it's not about just needing to go to the gym.
I do about two hours working out in the morning with my trainer. It's like brushing my teeth.
Psychologically, when you've been overweight, you want to achieve the polar opposite.
Something's wrong with all countries and all voting systems.
You find your personality real quick in school.
I am not competing to be an athlete. I make music.
When I go on stage, there's no way I can do the kind of show I do and not be fit for it. I can't. I want to give everything.
I'm all about the melody.
In the course of my career, which has been an incredible rollercoaster ride, I look at the journey and think it's been immense.
Let me create great music, go in the studio, and possibly become a memory and a time stamp in people's lives - and just give the best performances, because I know that's all that really matters.
Life is all about how things rough up against you and how you see them and the vantage point you have from them.
Failure and success are part of the same seed. If you don't embrace your failure, you never really know what success is.
When you start to ascertain a physique, you run that thing where you don't want to lose it. It catches you; it's like a hook.
It's lovely to feel part of a community.
Before my first album 'Born To Do It,' I used to DJ.
For me, I have the highest amount of respect for DJs. There's a real skill set and ability to hold a crowd's attention for four to five hours, especially with an R&B/hip-hop and open-format music.
That's the beauty with music in the digital age: you're always one follow away from experiencing something new.
There's nothing that I own that really makes me as happy as knowing that the people around me are all good.
For any healthy relationship to work, you have to be able have that time to spend with your friends.
I've realised that as long as the youth has the ability to use social media, and their voice is there, people can actually cut through the nonsense and see what's really going on.
'Fill Me In' went to number one at the same time Destiny's Child released 'Say My Name.' Having a number one over Destiny's Child at their peak was just madness to me.
When I got to the second album, there was an expectation, because we'd sold nearly seven million albums on the first record, that this would do eight or nine.
My thing is, for artists who are having success, being given an award shouldn't be the thing that defines you in the first place.
I've done a couple of tunes with Kaytranada. 'Got It Good' has had such a great response.
It amazes me how quickly you can earn money.
I have enough rings to cover both hands, but that is crass. There is a fine line between looking nice and looking over. Sometimes, I look at myself and say, 'Craig, that is over.' You have to be careful.
I'm an only child, so I got spoilt a lot. Which was a good thing.
It is cool to be gay, but I am not.
Me and guitar music is so entwined.
I don't know if, in a previous life, I was, like, the embodiment of a guitar, because any time someone plays a guitar with the licks, I just resonate to it.
I always find that, when it comes to writing songs, if the melody and the chords are working, we're 90 per cent there.
When I write a song, I get the melody right first, and then hopefully I can back it up with a lyric that has to respect the melody.
I'm not angry about 'Bo' Selecta!' I was flattered at first and even appeared on his show, but he just went on to become more vicious, knocking down everything I did.
I aspired to playing at Glastonbury, not just the Camden Palais.
I am only as good as my last song. Hits are a pension, but I don't want to rest on those songs. I want to have a future.
When I was 16, I didn't really know what intuition was as a word, even. It's one of those things you experience, but you don't really know what it is.
'Born to Do It' took a kid out of a council estate and put my mum into a home of her own. It changed my whole family's situation, and all from doing something that I loved.
You have to have those times when your hunger and drive is in a different place because you're under pressure to have success.
It does feel that TS5 gave me such a new lease of life.
I played 'Rewind' so many times in the club to see which parts were working, see how the crowd reacted to it.
Don't take social media seriously. Don't buy into the hype.
What I've learned is that if you stay focused and believe and actually walk the walk, anything is possible.
We need to stop thinking the grass is greener on the other side and be happy with the love we have.
Writing for others is great cos you can tailor it for them.
I love all my albums... I use the metaphor they're like my children: some do better than others, but you love them all equally.
My mum made the best roasts.