“Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who’ve never done anything because if you haven’t been successful, then you don’t know how it feels to lose it all.”

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.

No one came to our neighborhoods with stand-up jobs and showed us there’s a different way. Maybe, had I seen different role models, maybe I’d’ve turned on to that.

Providing – that’s not love. Being there – that’s more important. I mean, we see that. We see that with all these rich socialites. They’re crying out for attention; they’re hurting for love. I’m not being judgmental.

Good schools for me to prepare myself for a career, and, if I worked hard and played by the rules, a chance for me to do anything I wanted.

Some of my colleagues seem more interested in using every procedural method possible to keep the Senate from doing anything than they are in creating jobs or helping Americans struggling in a difficult economy.

Let me tell you, you can paint pictures and get people indicted for just about anything.

I absolutely don’t believe in anything. Full stop. Including luck.

They didn’t really have a choice because I got jobs acting before anyone could really say anything.

I have no idea who the characters are, later, their personalities take over anything I might want to do.

There’s no need to explain anything at length. Let go of love and hate and let things be. That’s all that I do in my own practice.

If I were to write anything at all, it would turn out to be nothing but talk about movies. In other words, take ‘myself,’ subtract ‘movies,’ and the result is ‘zero.’