“I’ve been told I sold 110m albums and singles. If that’s the case, I should’ve come here in a space rocket.”

I have loved eight women in my life. I remember every woman’s face.

I could be religious, if they sang the hymns to disco.

If you make a mistake, you should enjoy it.

I just became a vegetable for three months. I couldn’t talk to people. I was very ill and that was part of the reason I left college.

Cause people lose it, they lose it – they say: ‘I like that, and that’s not this.’

Bipolar disorder, manic depression, depression, black dog, whatever you want to call it, is inherent in our society. It’s a product of stress and in my case over-work.

I’m a punk rocker. I don’t do Christian.

There is always room at the top, don’t let them tell you there is not.

I wanted to make good records. But my problem is I’ve got a low boredom threshold, so I wanted it to look and sound different with each album, which is really tantamount to suicide

I’ve never really been nervous about any concerts. I enjoy it so much.

The brain isn’t like the heart. They learned how to transplant a heart. The brain is more complex.

Since the decline of record companies and music sales, I’ve always played live.

I think what’s going on with gorillas is pretty bad. The fact is that you can buy gorilla meat in London any day you want it.

Depression is something that doesn’t just go away. It’s just… there and you deal with it. It’s like… malaria or something.

Bad things happen sometimes.

I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 18 The first time was a nightmare. Who shows you how to use a condom?

When I’m recording my album, I want to be acting, or when I’m on set, I want to be making music.

Nothing me and Kanye can do musically was gonna match the event of what we were trying to do. So we were trying to deliver an album and experience at one time; that was the idea for ‘Watch The Throne’.

When you have a reputation for making not only good songs but great albums, that in itself creates added artistic pressure. But, at the end of the day, I guess that pressure is something I welcome.

My first album was mainly dealing with street issues, and it was ‘coded’: it was called ‘Reasonable Doubt.’ So the things I was talking about…

I don’t sit around with my friends and talk about money, ever. On a record, that’s different.

You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like ‘I still go to the projects.’ I’m like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it’s so cool?

MTV made a huge impact. Heavy rotation took you from selling 1m albums to 20m albums, and that meant a lot of dough.

We’ve made bad albums in the past, and people have bought them. I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m just grateful for it.