“I’ve talked to Bill Clinton – he’s the ultimate rock star; no one’s more charming than him. People clap in a restaurant when he finishes dinner! I don’t get that treatment. I get it when I walk onstage, but not when I have dinner.”

I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can.

As kids we didn’t complain about being poor; we talked about how rich we were going to be and made moves to get the lifestyle we aspired to by any means we could. And as soon as we had a little money, we were eager to show it.

What are you talking about? Wait a minute, you’re getting out of the zone.’ People hate when people cross lines.

The day Obama got into office, rap was less important because Obama gave kids an alternative. But will rap ever go away? No. There will always be a need for poets.

When I listen to Amy Winehouse, I believe that her heart and soul is in the music, or if I listen to other British artists like Duffy or Estelle. The aesthetic of it is different, and it’s my point of view. It’s not anything formulaic.

Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it’s very hard to teach racism to a teenager who’s listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It’s hard to say, ‘That guy is less than you.’ The kid is like, ‘I like that guy, he’s cool. How is he less than me?

What people have to understand is ‘Billboard’ is a magazine. They’re like elected officials – they work for us.

I’ll make a song with Rick Rubin, a song with Beyonce, a song with Lenny Kravitz. I just believe in making good music. I’m not trying to section myself off into just making hard-core rap music.

I’m far from being god, but I work god damn hard.

Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I’m a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?

I’ve always wanted to stay true to myself, and I’ve managed to do that. People have to accept that.

It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we’d play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.

I collect art, and I drink wine… things that I like that I had never been exposed to. But I never said, ‘I’m going to buy art to impress this crowd.’ That’s just ridiculous to me. I don’t live my life like that, because how could you be happy with yourself?

No, I’m not interested in politics. I have zero interest. I have interest in hope and people.

We wasn’t allowed inside the galleries or inside Yankee Stadium. We were writing in the street and making music.

I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about.

Like simplicity and candor, and other much-commented qualities, enthusiasm is charming until we meet it face to face, and cannot escape from its charm.

The most charming thing about youth is the tenacity of its impressions.

Letters form a by-path of literature, a charming, but occasional, retreat for people of cultivated leisure.

Erudition, like a bloodhound, is a charming thing when held firmly in leash, but it is not so attractive when turned loose upon a defenseless and unerudite public.

Taylor Swift is super charming. Damn you Swift.

People were not charmed with Eglantine because she herself was charming, but because she was charmed.

We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.

There is nothing so slipperily alluring as sadness; we become sad in the first place by having nothing stirring to do; we continue in it, because we have found a snug sofa at last.