I would adore my 16-year-old self. I would tell them that you are a visionary. You have an incredible idea of who you are. Be patient because your time will come [Maitreya rose to fame in 1987 as Terence Trent D’Arby]. Every insult, everything you’re going through, will transform into your own unique form of expression. You will inherit a chip on your shoulder that you will learn to use as fuel. I did not have a happy childhood. It was very dramatic and confusing. So see this as the preliminary process you go through to become a greater artist than you might have been if everyone was blowing smoke up your ass.
to the point where you have no fixed identity that you feel safe enough to embrace [he adopted his new name in 1995]. The idea that we remain the same person, from the time we come out of the womb,
