Top 44 Quotes & Sayings by Santan Dave

I'm always looking forward and trying to improve.

Grime must be its own genre.

The moment I started learning to play the piano it changed my whole dynamic with music and with school. Suddenly I had a reason to be there, or at least at my music lessons; it just took hold of me.

I'm not really good in public spaces, I'm not really good with people, I'm not really good at a lot of things.

Black is confusing. Where does the line start and stop with what is black and what isn't black? People that are mixed-race, or, imagine being from Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, people might say you're black but your features are so non-black, like you've got straight hair, you've got like a sharper nose, or such.

It was a pleasure to work alongside Sir David Attenborough and Hans Zimmer.

I couldn't care less about criticism.

Where I'm from, if you can't see who and what is good for you and who is bad for you, you could end up with the wrong friends, in places where you don't need to be, with people that you didn't need to bring into your house, giving your trust to those who could turn on you.

I think we internalise a great deal. Music can draw that stuff out of even the hardest person.

The piano is an instrument I've always loved and so I taught myself. As a rapper, who wants to produce more, being able to play by ear helps a lot because I know where I want an instrument to turn or how I want it to sound without having to do too much work.

I wish I could make myself more riveting but I'm quite standard, as the name suggests.

I really enjoy Lana Del Rey, and Pink Floyd are amazing.

I don't think that one moment in people's life should define them. Within reason: I emphasise that.

I like making music when no one's really there, so it's just you and yourself: you're more free.

Prison hosts a lot of normal people, a lot of family men who were caught in a tight situation or in a dark place.

Psychodrama' is a form of therapy and it is just expressing how you feel in whatever way is the most creative to you. Some people act it out, some people sing it out, people find their own different ways.

I've always had a different ear for music.

I learnt what I am not good at: listening, staying focused, turning up on time, following orders... I realised that I was going to have to pull off something special, something different.

A very bland eleven-year-old, playing computer games. I went to a local primary school but I wasn't anything special or anything insanely interesting. I didn't have a crazy personality. I was somewhat book smart, but I wasn't hanging off the teacher, nor was I messing up in class. I wasn't doing much to disrupt anything. I was just there, existing.

When it gets to that time to tell your mum that you're not going to university, which has been her grand plan for you for the last 18 years, all of a sudden 700,000 YouTube views mean absolutely nothing.

That's why the Kanye Wests and the Drakes are just in a different league, because they have the ability to be vulnerable and open.

Just be thankful for what you have in the moment, but most importantly, work hard. The things that you work hard on have a lot of impact.

We're all just humans at the end of the day.

Rap, for me, I go at any tempo and any sound of beat and incorporate melody as well.

I just can't belong to a genre, because I don't know what I would want it to be.

I'm not a grime act, I'm not a rapper, nor am I melody man. I just make music.

I've given her bragging rights. That's something my mum's definitely big on, like any African parent. Like any parent.

I was drawing before I did music, but me, I'm a dilettante. I jump into everything until I find one thing that I enjoy more than others. Rap was something that was always there because my brother used to rap - piano and musical instruments is something I learnt on the way.

Music and football are two industries where black people excel, because talent is undeniable. You can't deny an amazing voice. You can't deny amazing athletic prowess. Physically, it's evident. But in other industries, circumstance is more of a thing.

The biggest lesson that I've learnt is that things can change so quickly, never get used to one thing because everything can flip on it's head.

I want to help people struggling with whatever it is they're going through.

Grime is its own sound. There's a lot more to it. It's like a sound, culture, style - the way that they dress and speak.

For a black person who's Senegalese, growing up in France, or a New York Jamaican, that's a completely different relationship with being black and how you might be accepted in that culture or that world. Everyone's experience is different. Especially black women and black men.

When I'm performing, the crowd just disappears, it's like everyone merges - one big person. You just say the words and people will say the words back to you. And it's just so rehearsed. I have a lot of songs I couldn't forget the words if I tried. So you get in there, you lose yourself and it's all good.

A lot of people devote their lives to me and what I do. It means the most to be able to repay that faith.

There was a sort of chain in school. I wasn't, like, mad at the top, but I wasn't right at the bottom, either.

I started my first year at college on May 10 2015, and dropped my first video, 'Black Box' on the same day, it's pretty weird. I'm studying Philosophy and Ethics, Law and Music. Ethics helps a lot with music. Philosophy gives you a great perspective on things; it makes you think deeper about what you're saying.

As a human, I'd say I'm pretty intermediate.

I think it's crucial to go out and explain to people who you are and where you come from, your hardships - that's the kind of stuff I connect to.

Sometimes I sit down and I think 'Do I regret this? Do I regret that?' And I feel like everything makes this snowball effect, you know? If you regret something, it's good because it just means that it's something that's affected you enough for you to stop and think... There's a reason that everything happens.

I like soundtracks. I love Hans Zimmer, the score for 'The Dark Knight Rises' is one of my favourites. I also like 'Man of Steel,' 'Inception,' 'Interstellar,' 'Braveheart,' 'Transformers' - Steve Jablonsky with 'Arrival to Earth.' 'Schindler's List' too, that's beautiful.

I've always like 'Dragonball Z' and 'Naruto,' that kind of drawing. My older brother draws so he was always drawing 'Dragonball Z' characters and so I got into it from there.

I've always listened to different styles of music to make sure I'm balanced. I feel like if you only listen to your type of music you can never go outside of it.

It's what I do my entire life when I'm not doing music. If I'm in a hotel room in Sweden, or on a plane to Vancouver, I'm watching football. I'll try to talk about other stuff, too, but football is a lifestyle.