Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Oliver Sim

The day that you walk out in front of 30,000 people and don't get nervous is probably the day to give it up. It's inspiring to be a little terrified.

Beyonce is very special. I think the super-pop thing that supposedly died with Michael Jackson is still there with her.

My writing has changed a lot. From 16 to 19, I've changed a lot. My kind of writing in the beginning was very observational; now it's grown very personal for me. I use it as a diary in many ways.

I don't find touring very creative. There's not much time to yourself with your instruments.

As cliched as it sounds, I'm taking every day as it comes.

The xx do not condone guns!

I can see myself always writing songs - but I'm not sure if I'll always want to perform.

I don't think it's good for people to know too much about you. With my favourite bands, I don't want to have the inside track on every single aspect of their personal lives.

I don't know what I was expecting or what I was dreaming about the xx accomplishing.

In the studio, there's no tiptoeing. As opposed to big, blow-out arguments, there are just lots of little solutions.

The darkness of clubs makes me feel much more secure, and you can hide behind smoke and lights.

It's a lot easier to play in front of quite a lot of strangers than a couple of your friends just because when it's someone that really knows you, it's much more scary.

Not to flatter myself, but I know that you can influence people's opinion as a musician, and I don't want to.

Romy and I, we're learning how to share the xx with people who aren't in the xx.

I feel more confident and like I have more to say. I feel like I'm working more than ever, not just from fantasy, but actual experience. I'm an adult now - I actually have experience.

Music is something I can't stop. Whether people are going to hear it or not, I'm still going to make music.

I enjoy not knowing everything about a musician I like. At a time when you can find out a popstar's favourite animal, I think it's more exciting not to know. I just don't want to tell everyone everything.

I was living with my dad, and I loved it. But I could totally imagine that if I didn't move out quickly, I would end up staying there well into my 30s.

In our school, there were lots of bands putting up posters saying 'Come to our gigs'.

You see bands putting ads in the paper: 'drummer wanted'. I could never be in a set-up like that.

When you write songs for your best friends and maybe two other people to hear, and then realize that a million other people are going to hear them, it can be a bit worrying. You get concerned about what you might reveal.

'Coexist' was tough to make.

My own personal goal is I just hope to still write songs and kind of let that sustain me as a job. If I could never have a 9-to-5 job, and making a living doing this, it'd just be incredible.

To perform in front of a room full of people you go to school with would be terrifying. I couldn't do it now.

I believe with a lot of support shows, people are very much there to see the headliner. You don't necessarily have their full attention, and some of what we do requires a lot of silence.

I remember reading an interview with Adele, where she said that touring was the loneliest thing in the world. All of her band are hired, so, really, it's just her. I can't imagine what that must be like.

I was just making music in my bedroom. I never wanted to be onstage.

Normally, I don't like explaining songs. I don't want to kill anyone's interpretation or the story they want to make for themselves.

When I finished school, I didn't continue to go to university, because I decided I wanted to do music.

I've never felt any huge intrusions into my personal life.

I can't even imagine how it must be to be a solo artist playing with session musicians.

I just listen to quite random songs; I don't like really particular artists or bands.

Towards the end of Coexist, we had a couple of short tours where, although we were on the road together, we weren't speaking very much. We were there to do a job, and once the show was done we'd go our separate ways to our hotel rooms. Those were some of my unhappiest moments. Stepping offstage and, within an hour, being in a hotel room alone is the most crazy feeling. I don't know how to really explain it. I felt just lost and confused. It's anticlimactic and you just feel really lonely.

With Brexit and the U.S. election, it's become clear that a lot of people have been thinking a certain way. Nothing has actually changed yet except the fact that it's been brought to light, which is quite a daunting, scary thing to realize.

I feel like I've got so much to do, from a music perspective. Jamie's done his record and traveled around the world with it. Romy did all those writing sessions. I would love to do what Romy's done and experience that other side of the pop machine. It sounds terrifying and, at times, a little bit soulless. That's a real pet peeve of mine, when people talk about songwriting in a cynical way. But having said that I still want to do it, just to know what it's like.

I put things on shuffle a lot, which is probably why I don't have a very good idea of genre.

I've spent a lot of my early twenties focusing on other people as opposed to myself. Being madly in love with people and putting them first and not necessarily putting myself under a microscope. It's unsettling but I'm trying to be the kind of person that can be alone, at peace with himself. Making most recent album, I felt braver putting stuff into songs than I do bringing them up in conversation. Which makes no logical sense. Lyrically, there was a lot less hiding behind suns and moons and stars.

I've got quite a varied iTunes, and I like to raid people's CD collections and take on their music.