I saw Damien Rice in Dublin when I was 13, and that inspired me to want to pursue being a songwriter... I practised relentlessly and started recording my own EPs. At 16 I moved to London and played any gigs I could, selling CDs from my rucksack to fund recording the next, and it snowballed from there.
Ed SheeranYou kind of half-prepare a speech in your head, and then you get up there and then you end up saying nothing that was in your head before you went up there. It's a very weird thing. I never do award speeches too well.
Ed SheeranInstead of writing songs for girls, I tend to write albums, which I guess is a bit weird.
Ed SheeranGrowing up, I was inspired by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Damian Rice was a huge influence for me musically.
Ed SheeranI'm quite arty. I didn't know whether to become an artist or musician but I realised I could paint with music. All my songs have colours.
Ed SheeranI don't think that there's much that sets me apart from other musicians, but I think there are definitely things that set me apart from other kinds of artists.
Ed SheeranIt was always meant to ease out of a big radio song and flow into the next one. Don't is the bridge song in between Sing and Thinking Out Loud.
Ed SheeranA sense of humor is an important thing to have because when you get into an argument, one of the best ways to diffuse it is to be funny.
Ed SheeranThe whole 'studly womaniser' thing, I mean, I quite enjoy the title - it's just not very accurate.
Ed SheeranI think the moment you start trying to please a fan base is when you start going downhill. I'm going to always, always write about what I want, even if it doesn't necessarily cater to most of them.
Ed SheeranThe thing that I took away as an early fan from Bob Dylan was the storytelling aspects. He can tell some wicked stories.
Ed SheeranI personally don't think ginger men have a habit of being attractive. We have to make ourselves seem attractive by doing stuff.
Ed SheeranI've never really been a confident person, except from a musical standpoint. I had to push myself early on, but it got easier with each gig.
Ed SheeranI do like my hair. It took a while to come around to the fact that it was quite a unique value point.
Ed SheeranThe more you write tunes, the better they will become. The more you do gigs, the better you will become.
Ed SheeranThe main idea of it was to multiply everything, to have a bigger sound and grow venue size and grow fan base. As for a lyrical theme of the album [named "X"], it's just diary entries; it's just kind of like three years of my life in songs.
Ed SheeranThere were a couple of things I needed to do while I was in New York. One was to have a pizza pie, one was to get a tattoo... and the other was to get a Yankees hat.
Ed SheeranEmil's [Nava], the video director. Originally, I was meant to do all the stuff that the puppet was doing. I just wasn't that comfortable with doing it, so he had a puppet made.
Ed SheeranEveryone knows almost everything about me. I make it very clear that I'm cool with people knowing all my personal life through my songs.
Ed SheeranI was on some TV shows with Lady Gaga the other week, and you could see the difference in reaction between her fans and my fans outside. She comes out, and she looks like a star, and the reaction is just tears, crying, people going, 'Oh my God, Oh my God.' My fans are like: 'Alright, Ed.'
Ed Sheeran[Miley Cyrus] got a fantastic voice. I do think she's a fantastic artist and does great songs. I wish her all the best.
Ed SheeranI think YouTube has destroyed the genre barrier. People can be into Justin Bieber and Eminem at the same time. It's a good thing.
Ed Sheeran