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To be in the charts and hanging around with such huge names in the industry just feels like a complete privilege! I can't even explain how it feels - complete dream come true.
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At last I came to college. I rushed for it with the outstretched arms of youth's aching hunger to give and take of life's deepest, and highest, and I came against the solid wall of the well-fed, well-dressed world - the frigid whitewashed wall of cleanliness. ... How I pinched, and scraped, and starved myself, to save enough to come to college! Every cent of the tuition fee I paid was drops of sweat and blood from underpaid laundry work. And what did I get for it? A crushed spirit, a broken heart, a stinging sense of poverty that I never felt before.
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I've tried to write in a way that transcends beyond just sexuality and is more about letting go of our fear and trusting the people around us.
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The amount of people that have said, 'You've inspired me to be confident. I've come out to my friends because of you,' that reduces me to tears every time, because I'm just, like, little old me from Hull has had an implication on somebody's life. That's massive to me. Massive.
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I'm very keen on making the world a better place, whether that's changing people's attitudes or giving people the confidence to be who they are.
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I cannot thank the LGBT+ community enough for their support, for their love, for their acceptance, and for the first time in a letter, I am incredibly proud to say that I am gay and have never been happier.
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If I had never met him I would have dreamed him into being.
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Poor people who had escaped from poverty as I had, feared it, hated it and fled from it all their lives. Those born rich could afford to be touched by it.
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'No Matter What' is, without question, the most personal song I have ever written and the one I am most proud of.
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Being honest to who I am led me to write 'If Our Love Is Wrong,' and that allowed me to fully realize the direction I should be heading to - human nature, real emotions, and issues about LGBT.
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I am so confident and empowered by my sexuality; it plays an enormous part in my life.
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My fans have been incredible since day one... Literally, the only reason I get to do what I do! I love every single one of them, and I am still being discovered by people! Just want to share what I do with everyone!
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I tried to surround myself with people who have accepted me for being me. And I want to create that image to my fans as well. And that's the advice I give to them. To be happy for who you are, and to surround yourself with people who are happy for being you.
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I feel very privileged to do what I do, so I'm just going to keep working hard and enjoy every minute of it because it could be over just like that.
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I am doing something I love, travelling the world, meeting fans, feeling confident, and I am no longer restricted by my sexuality.
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I will continue to be open in my music and in interviews and keep those conversations going about the issues we face as an LGBT+ community until those conversations no longer need to be had.
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It is important for me to tell my story so that others feel comfortable telling theirs.
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Just celebrate who you are and be happy with you are. Take all the ups and downs together, as you're only human.
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I too was frightened the first time I felt I hated my father. I felt like a criminal. But could I help it what was inside of me? I had to feel what I felt even if it killed me.
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The world is a wheel always turning.
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Though my father was poor and had nothing, the Torah, the poetry of prophets, was his daily bread.
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It takes a lot of emotional high and struggles to write songs.
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I had told one of my friends that I felt like I might be gay or that I just wasn't into girls, and I was abandoned.
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I worked in an office for eight years, so I know what it's like to slog through for money, but now to be able travel the world and sing to so many people, it's a complete dream come true.