“I’ve realized that this kind of feeling is contagious, and the more I enjoy it, the more it reaches my fans. This whole album is a breath of fresh air, but it also has depth and emotion. [...] If you’re feeling bad, you write emotional songs, and if you’re feeling good, you write happy songs. I had to wait for things to change for that. [...] I’m not someone who gets depressed or in a bad mood easily.”

“I’m always pushing myself to improve. I never received any kind of musical education, I didn’t play any instruments… and one day I auditioned for The X Factor, and here I am now. Psychologically, it’s hard to accept where you are. [...] It’s more an admiration for the situation. I don’t care about the answer to that. I could overanalyze how I got here, but here I am.”

“It was very intense. But that’s what happens when you do something like that at a young age, when you have natural resilience. I can’t imagine going through that process now, and if I were starting out now, it would be pretty intimidating. There are many things—like fame—that I could do without; but I wouldn’t be able to put on my shows if I weren’t famous… so that’s shit.”

“It was a grieving process. It was incredibly hard for me to get over that idea, and it caught me by surprise. I had never considered the possibility of going solo. Now I realize how naive I was, because I thought we would be in One Direction forever. That’s what made the idea of moving forward on my own even more intimidating, because I was still processing the fact that it no longer existed. [...] The worst part has been being surrounded by success. It’s as if there’s so much light in this job that you completely miss out on a very important part of life. It’s about surrounding yourself with the right people, but also with normality.”

“I’ve almost admitted defeat. Since I was 19, I’ve been in the public eye, and under those circumstances you don’t have much privacy. I’ve always leaned toward using my honesty and vulnerability. My fans think they know me very well, and to a certain extent they do, but my albums are more of an opportunity for them to see what’s inside my head rather than just relying on their perception of who I am.”

“You have to live with those things. There’s no preparation for what my family and I have been through. I’ve been lucky because of the way I was raised. I’m someone who doesn’t struggle to talk about his feelings, and that definitely helps when you’re going through this kind of thing.”

“This is the album I’ve always deserved, and I am the artist I always deserved to be. There were moments in One Direction that were difficult and that I struggled against. But now, having the opportunity to express myself individually, I’m grateful that everything led me to this situation.”

“Believing that I’m worthy of those big stages. I know I am, but there will be shows where I’ll doubt it.”

“I read a quote that says sometimes you don’t have time to figure out why the answer is no, but if your instinct tells you no, you can sort it out later and analyze that information. But if you have a gut feeling about something, it’s probably right. I would tell myself to trust my instinct a little more.”