- [on running across the road in traffic just to prove that he could do it] I thought, 'I am going to overcome this. I'm going to do it.' I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. I get it from my mother.
- [while recording the new album in Berlin, they conducted a musical focus group, inspired by Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, assembling various journalists and grilling them about the then unfinished centrepiece "Old Rock'n'Roll" - questions included "How fast are you travelling when you listen to this?" and "Is it a hit?"] It was a good opportunity to make everyone, including us, feel awkward. Feeling awkward is the start of making something original.
- My sister and I were those poor kids you saw in the camps in the charity broadcasts but we're not any more.
- They had to drain the fluid off. [pointing at a small mound on his forehead, the result of being hit by a car as a child]
- We are not a political band. It's all about how it's done. I always try to visualise us performing, thinking, is this entertaining? Would I be excited by this? Why don't you write a decent pop song where you say what you need to say and it's catchy - there's your protest! You want to involve everyone. This is why we don't push "the Scottish thing". You're born somewhere by chance. It's a bit of land. I'll never understand why folk get patriotic about certain things.
- [on what his mother thinks of his chosen career] You have to prove it to her. I think for most folk, education is the way out. From an African background, it's like you need to learn twice as much as other people because they're trying to set you up for the world. But I always felt better doing creative things. I felt it was just better for my soul... I think she took a while but she came round!
- I really liked primary school. I really liked high school earlier on and then I just kind of lost interest, you know. I lost interest in many things - there was stuff going on in the household and I felt like there wasn't anyone that represented me. To put it frankly, a black teacher, male or female. I'm not saying there wasn't any good teachers but in the way they kind of work *with* you, understand you and make you feel like you can do it... I didn't feel that.
- [when he and his sister arrived in Niddrie, Edinburgh, they spoke his mother's language, Twi; later his father put a stop to it - probably to encourage them to integrate, though Massaquoi is not quite sure] My mum had this tape of us on the phone to our granny back home and she felt hurt every time she heard it because we weren't allowed to speak Twi any more. And it pisses me off when I think about it but now I guess I kind of understand. He was very strict in his ways. My father stayed in the house but I didn't know him as a person. We are starting to be friends but I don't know anything about him. He's a nice guy. But because I grew up with my mum and my sister, I feel very comfortable around women. I think you can tell when someone has sisters - I'm not a Jack the Lad. My sister always says it would make complete sense if I was gay!
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