I remember after a year in London, I was at an MTV party and a friend saying to me that it was such a brave thing to do to come over to London by myself. I never thought it was a big deal. It was my dream. I am so independent. It is just ridiculous. I am too independent for my own good.
Maybe it's the way that I do music, but I was never in a cool indie band or hung out with all the cool arty kids when I came to London.
Filming in London is brilliant.
It wasn't until I realised that I could actually take nice photographs that I started to become passionate about it. I then got a few jobs working for magazines in London, and I would get terribly excited and intense about doing a job and taking photographs and looking through the lens to capture something amazing.
I went to London and was excited to make the team, but to be honest, I was a bit dissatisfied with my performance there, and I'd really like to make up for that in Rio and get the best out of myself on the Olympic stage.
Other tourists might remember London for Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, and Big Ben. I'll remember it for its failed multiculturalism.
When I was a kid in Ireland, there were not very many black people. I was very much like the strange brown thing, intriguing and cute. I didn't experience racism there. The first time I did was in London. It was that moment that you realize you're black. A kind of lifting of the veil.
I had the impression from reading English literature that British women were great beauties, and I only had seen Julie Christie, and she was gorgeous and sexy. I don't know whether it was just my taste, but when I got to London, I went two years without seeing a truly attractive woman. A lot of near misses.
Seeing different sides of life, seeing different sides of society, that's what London's all about. When I was young my mum always tried to make me do that.
Of course there are times when I hate London, but equally there are times when I can walk 'round a corner and I really feel that this is my place.
I grew up in Hong Kong, and London used to seem very gray: the sky was gray, the buildings were gray, the food was incredibly gray - the food had, like, new kinds of grayness specially invented for it.
When I'm in London, it feels like I am that character who is 'Tom Odell.'
I arrived in London and I was terrified. I never wanted to be a celebrity - one minute I was in school and the next I was in London talking to people at a record company. If anything, I didn't feel in any way worthy.
Italy and London are the only places where I don't feel to exist on sufferance.
It's the only thing to do when you're in London - hang out in a taxi.
