With the release of the hit song “Unholy,” featuring Kim Petras, Sam Smith rose to yet another level of fame. The golden-voiced singer has performed on SNL, recorded with Brandi Carlile and just generally showed the world that personal creativity and big success can go together hand-in-hand.
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But with such talent and fame, one might wonder what the “Unholy” singer has to say about life and love, their career, and the world around them. Below, without further ado, are the 20 best Sam Smith quotes.
1. “It’s my job to have ups and downs because it makes good music.”
2. “I will sing happy songs, and I do sing happy songs, but the stuff that’s going to move me and going to make me close my eyes is always the blues.”
3. “I’m more comfortable performing in front of 50,000 people than five people—it’s easier. When there’s that many people, I feel like I’m alone. When I perform in front of only a few people, it’s scary.”
4. “There’s always been a hunger in me not necessarily to be successful, but to be an icon.”
5. “I’m not a really religious person, but those moments onstage feel like some sort of religious experience because no one holds back, especially ‘Stay With Me’ when I finish the show. It kind of turns into an anthem when I perform it live, and it feels like there’s a lot of love in the room.”
6. “I’m a vulnerable, sensitive person. I overthink everything.”
7. “My music is almost like vomit! It’s a horrible way to put it, but I feel it, I say it, and I doubt myself all the time throughout my whole life, but when it comes to music, I just don’t. I don’t doubt myself.”
8. “I’m addicted to making music, but I don’t want to do it forever. I just want a farm. Farms make you happy.”
9. “I’ll be excited when I get my heart broken properly for the first time. I’ll be like, ‘Thank God I’ve experienced something. Someone wanted to kiss me.’ That’s when it’s going to be interesting: When you break up, they’re taking a piece with them.”
10. “I don’t go to celebrity parties a lot. I don’t really enjoy them because I really like going for it in parties. And sometimes at celebrity parties, there is no dancing on tables because people … it can be a little judgmental at times. So I tend not to go unless it is Taylor Swift’s birthday party; then it’s amazing.”
11. “My debut album is just a diary from a lonely 21-year-old. That’s what it is.”
12. “When I was at school and wasn’t having a great time or when music wasn’t going very well, I would eat, eat. Eating would make me feel better; when I felt lonely, I would eat.”
13. “My plan is just to love harder than I’ve ever loved before, hide nothing, and embrace that I’m an imperfect human being.”
14. “Even now I doubt myself. I don’t understand what people hear in my voice. I can’t hear it myself if you know what I mean.”
15. “It sounds depressing, but I think when you truly love someone, you’ll never stop loving them.”
16. “I get really self-conscious about people staring at me. It sounds so weird. As a performer, as an artist, these should be the things that I’m used to. But that’s not the case. When people stare at me, I freak out.”
17. “I don’t understand why you have to wear a wedding ring to warn people off. You should be able to be faithful to that person without anything on your body to show that you are with someone.”
18. “Just because you’re selling out shows doesn’t mean you deserve better treatment than the person next door.”
19. “My mum and dad used to make me stand up at dinner parties and sing to their friends.”
20. “As a youngster, when I started writing and stuff, I did actually write more from other people’s perspectives. When I hit 18 and something happened to me that hurt me, I discovered that writing the truth is really therapeutic and amazing.”
Photo by Derek White/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
