Be yourself. If you're not yourself, who are you? But take advice; listen to people. If you're not listening, you're lost. You're a sheep among wolves.
Craig David
We need to stop thinking the grass is greener on the other side and be happy with the love we have.
Don't take social media seriously. Don't buy into the hype.
I've done a couple of tunes with Kaytranada. 'Got It Good' has had such a great response.
It's like a god-given gift that I've actually been able to go out and sing my songs.
What I've learned is that if you stay focused and believe and actually walk the walk, anything is possible.
I aspired to playing at Glastonbury, not just the Camden Palais.
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.
People use the 'love' word too early. When you've got that trust thing locked down, when you've lived together, and you know each other's good and bad qualities inside out, at that moment, you know if you truly love someone.
'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.
What I dislike about going to the club is if you're not behind that red rope, you feel you're missing something special going on.
I've experienced everything any aspiring artist could ever want.
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.
We can all accept criticism of creative work, but to be publicly ridiculed for it is incredibly difficult to deal with.
If I live my life through nostalgia and what I did in the past and expect to be the new kid people have just discovered again, then unfortunately, I'm creating my own demise.
I see some artists who disown songs they love when they don't chart well. Would you do that to your children? Trust me, children ain't gonna do all the right things, so are you gonna disown them or embrace them and say, 'No, you're still my child. You didn't go out and do the right thing, but I'll still love you in the same way?'
I wrote a song called 'Four Times A Lady' for Destiny's Child, and it was perfect. But then I had to spin it back and change all the lyrics to a guy's point of view cos I thought the track was too good to give away, heh heh. It's Craig David now.
I played 'Rewind' so many times in the club to see which parts were working, see how the crowd reacted to it.
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 let the music do the talking, and people are still getting feelings from my songs.
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.
Certain key words, like, 'break it down,' 'this is how we do it' - they'll always end up on my tracks.
Failure and success are part of the same seed. If you don't embrace your failure, you never really know what success is.
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.
You know a date's gone really well when she's happy with nothing fancier than a Big Mac and fries!
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.'
Thankfully, my manager didn't talk me into 'Big Brother' or 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!'
The council estate I grew up on wasn't too bad.
My songs are a time stamp for a lot of people's lives.
I'm grateful for what I have and the people around me.
My mum made the best roasts.
It amazes me how quickly you can earn money.
Take anything seriously in life, and you set yourself up for peril - trust me.
If I couldn't sing tomorrow, I'd still write songs cos I'm passionate about that.
When you first come out of the box, you want to play the 300-capacity place, then it's 1,600-capacity, then it's an arena - so, do you want to be in a stadium now? The ego keeps telling you that it's not enough.
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.
'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.
I bought a dodgy gold ring off a guy in Southampton. He told me to check it was real gold by heating it up with a lighter and pressing it against my skin, because real gold doesn't burn. I still have the scar on my left hand.
Everything around me is surreal. I get picked up in cars and go to celebrity bashes, and I get sponsorship on clothes, and it's great, and I really enjoy it. But you should remember where it all started: the music. That's the key.
Me and guitar music is so entwined.
I do about two hours working out in the morning with my trainer. It's like brushing my teeth.
I leave it very open because, at the end of the day, it's one of those things where I shouldn't have to reinforce and state, 'No, I'm a heterosexual' - because that's all nonsense.
Before my first album 'Born To Do It,' I used to DJ.
If you're in a good relationship, you should be able to say to your girlfriend, 'That girl walking down the street is great.'
With every person you meet, there is a new and exciting experience to be had.
Life is all about how things rough up against you and how you see them and the vantage point you have from them.
I'm an only child, so I got spoilt a lot. Which was a good thing.
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.
Psychologically, when you've been overweight, you want to achieve the polar opposite.
I wanna have a positive impact and bring in artists on the come-up. It gets me hyped!
