James Blunt Quotations

'Top Gear' changed people's perceptions of me. I've had much more positive responses from my TV appearances than written articles. And I have the weirdest voice.

Sometimes, reading my own media, the negativity can upset me, but I just deal with things on a positive basis. I mean, I have up to 20,000 people singing my words back to me on a nightly basis - they share my hopes and fears, and they relate to my own life experiences. Life can be pretty isolating, but that connection is always amazing.

If you have good songs and a real desire to make music, the next thing to do, instead of approach record companies, is to get yourself a really good manager because then it allows you to focus on your profession of being a musician. Then they can focus on the darker art of the record label and the music industry.

The showbiz world has to be manipulated to make it more interesting because most people's lives are boring.

I like 'Goodbye My Lover' because it's a really personal song and I recorded it in my landlady's bathroom in Los Angeles. She had a piano in there and for me listening back to it, it actually sounds like the voice I hear in my head. It's so close to what I can imagine.

You can't break my spirit, it's my dreams you take.

Things take a long time, but when it's right things move fast.

I have fun with it and I am honest and open about the way I lead my life and don't mislead anyone. I've had the time of my life and thank God for that, it would be such a waste otherwise.

War is devastating, and it leaves its scars for generations.

My grandparents live in Cley, and my dad now has the windmill which is a guest house. So I've spent much time up there, but a lot of it was at school as well, and my dad was sent abroad so often as well with the army.

I don't agree with superstitious routines, but there are a couple of things I'll always do before performing. I'll get together with the band and chill out, and then, just before I go on stage, I'll always check my flies.

Being sent away to boarding school at seven is as great an inspiration as any songwriter could have - to be taken away from one's family and locked away for 10 years. It does create an incredible intensity of emotion.

If the Army helped towards my tuition fees I would then give them four years of my life.

I'm quite British in the sense of not expressing my emotions much. I save it for my songs. If you ask about a death in the family, or a lover, I will not be emotional. I'd probably answer with a smile. Because that's what we British blokes do.

I think having toured the world and seeing many places, I've just been blown away by how we've really scarred our home. I'm as guilty as the next person if not more so. I travel a lot. The damage we do to our planet is huge.

In a way song writing can almost be detrimental, because suddenly you find an outlet that is a kind of cheating. You don't need to have direct communication. You can say, 'I can't describe it to you, but I will record it and send it to you.'

My life is brillant, My love is pure.

I relax by catching up with my friends and family. When I am at home in Ibiza, I find the contrast of living on a divided island relaxing - with beauty and tranquillity in the north and a sense of fun, shallowness and celebration in the south.

I guess if you're stupid enough to join the army without thinking about getting shot at, then you really are a fool.

I have been told by people that I should not be seen clubbing with good-looking women, but I can't see why not. Why be a pop star otherwise?

I know I'm a pop star. But sometime I'd like to be a rock star.

I try to read everything that I can about myself because Saddam Hussein didn't read his reviews and he thought he was winning!

It's always nice to be able to capture your life's experiences in a song and hold the emotion in that way.

I am very happy to say I look just like my dad. But mothers always think their children are prettier than they really are, and mine has always told me I look like Tom Cruise.

School was pretty good about letting me take up music and that's where I had my first musical ideas and first said, 'Yeah, I'm going to be a musician.' I just had to do a quick stop gap in the army first.

Absolutely, it's a really weird stage because at the minute, I can walk down the street and be unrecognised, lead a normal life, but my label and everybody is warning me that will be changing and I'm in for a rollercoaster ride.

Like any parents, mine wanted me to have a secure job with a regular wage and career prospects. And the one job my father knew of, that he'd had experience of himself, was the army, so he could help me in that direction.

My mum was very good at making me take up musical instruments, so although there was no popular music she made me learn the recorder when I was three, the violin when I was five and the piano when I was seven. I took up the guitar myself when I was 14.

To begin with there was the comparisons to David Gray and Damien Rice because they were singer-songwriters. But what's funny is that if you listen to those two they don't sound anything like each other. It's so weird I should be compared to those two, but people need some association. But I'm really glad I've been given a voice by my parents that sounds different. I'm very lucky for that.

You're beautifulIt's trueI saw your face In a crowded placeand I dont know what to docause I will never be with you

You're beautiful It's true I saw your face In a crowded place and I dont know what to do cause I will never be with you

But I think he might be too old for me at 27. I don't think my mum and dad would have that.

I have friends who were friends of mine before I did music and they are my friends now, and we share life experiences. It's no fun unless you're sharing with people, looking out for them as they are looking out for you.

We see differences in people and seem to be afraid of people. The black or white or gay or straight - I don't necessarily look for differences but for similarities. We need to be looking out for each other.

I always wanted to be a Muppet.

I try to tell one lie in every interview. It keeps people I know amused when they read the article.

Maybe I should try singing like a man.

I always wanted to be a Muppet. So when 'Sesame Street' approached me to guest star, I thought: 'I'm going to be on this!' It's pretty incredible stuff.

Will you be my shoulder when I'm gray and older? Promise me tomorrow starts with you. Getting high, running wild among the stars above. Sometimes it's hard to believe you remember me.

Mothers always think their children are prettier than they really are, and mine has always told me I look like Tom Cruise

Ladies love a soppy lyric. There's a real winner in 'Carry You Home.

No matter whether you are black or white, man or woman, gay or straight, Christian, Muslim, or Jew, we all share the same emotions, the same human condition.

On the song 'Dangerous,' it feels like a teenager picking up a new instrument and writing something with all of that naive excitement.

Every time I do an interview, it's like serious therapy. But real therapy isn't something that I'd ever have. I feel fortunate that mentally everything is functioning well.

To get up on stage with a band is fantastic. To play songs to an audience is mindblowing.

This will be my first visit [to Israel]. I've heard it's a special place, that Tel Aviv is exciting and that the atmosphere is excellent....I hope I'll have time to visit the holy places.

Every person I've met has influenced my songs.

I am not into fashion. I just like being able to buy my mates dinner.

To come home and share life experiences with friends is the key to what makes me feel really alive.

My dad was in the Army. The Army's not great pay, but, you know, we moved from Army patch to Army patch wherever that was. The Army also contributed to sending me off to boarding school.

I think the things that make me excited are only best when they're shared with people.

I'm screaming at the top of my voice

I think sensitive is the wrong description of me. I'm British, actually, so quite bad at expressing myself in conversation, as any ex-girlfriend will tell you. I'm probably emotionally stunted.

There's a lot of music nowadays with people singing about how amazing their clothes are and how incredible their shoes are and how much jewelry they might be wearing or how much jewelry they want, how much money they have and the club that they're in and the alcohol that they're drinking. I think that's showing off. I don't think it's necessarily all that honest or all that interesting.

And the one job my father knew of, that he'd had experience of himself, was the Army, so he could help me in that direction.

Being British, I don't really have a way of expressing myself in conversation. Music transcends language.

I used to have an eBay addiction. I was really good at selling stuff. My sister needed to get to a funeral in Ireland - the airlines were on strike - so I listed her on eBay: damsel in distress. Guys were outbidding guys to be the hero and help her. A guy who owned a helicopter won.

I don't think I picked up the guitar in the first place as a way of getting women. There are probably better ways of doing it.

As a singer-songwriter who gets up on stage and sings about those things that make me vulnerable is an amazing experience. You get up on stage and effectively take your clothes off in front of thousands of people.

If you get up on stage and brag, I don't think that's very brave. It's braver to get up and take your clothes off. And I do that every night.

Honestly if men are given a choice, we'll choose everything.

I write, "Give me reason but don't give me choice, because I'll make the same mistake again." I think that's what most men want to be told.

The song is about love, life, fear and hope… and more than anything, you… and me…

I don't know how to write without thinking what people would want. You don't know whether they want you to be black or white, so you kind of get a gray, something in the middle.

It may be over but it won't stop there, I am here for you if you'd only care

I never really set out to do anything in the charts with music. It came as a total surprise that I did, and it's fun.

My parents are still together. I have two sisters. I travel the world and they are the people I speak to.

It's taken a long time but eventually when I had the songs in place and demos right and I found myself a manager, that's when everything started happening quickly but I think that's always the way it is.

I am a dreamer but when I wake, you can't break my spirit, it's my dreams you take

I write songs about my own experiences. You can't lie to yourself. You can't pose to yourself.

I'm pretty sure Adele and James Blunt were dumped by the same man.