“Fitzgerald coined the phrase the ‘Jazz Age,’ and now we’re living in the Hip-Hop Age.”

Trust yourself that you can do it and get it

All good, clean stories are melodrama, it’s just the set of devices that determines how you show or hide it.

I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.

The cold-audition process is not a science, so I ignore that.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself

Everything I make starts very personally.

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.

I do find walking is fundamental to my creative process.

My wife is the fact-checker, I’m in the story telling business.

I feel a kinship with anyone who feels that their road, their life or who they really are is not good enough. I really relate to that.

It’s pretty hard to get mugged in Manhattan.

At a very young age I was allowed to go into the cinema and watch adult films.

If Paris is a city of lights, Sydney is the city of fireworks.

The ugly duckling is a misunderstood universal myth. It’s not about turning into a blonde Barbie doll or becoming what you dream of being; it’s about self-revelation, becoming who you are.

Why live life from dream to dream, and dread the day when dreaming ends.

Opera was the cinema of its time, so to bring back that popular appeal, you just need to unleash its visceral immediacy and excitement. Most productions don’t manage that – but when an opera does do it, you never forget it.

When you talk about hip-hop, you’re talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is.

I’d like to see people pay attention to the science of hip hop. The knowledge part, the political side of what hip hop could do, or where hip hop is gonna go.

I am one of the founders of Hip-Hop along with my brothers Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash.

It’s every brand’s goal to be seen in the mainstream, and hip-hop music has become mainstream music.

Endorsements with hip-hop artists work because hip-hop artists typically set the most trends

There is a community in hip-hop. It doesn’t seem like that anywhere else, except maybe in punk rock. But punk rock is tricky, because it has become such a pop thing. But in rap, there is still a feeling of community. Who are our peers? Rappers.

The world is full of bullshitters, Liars, and triers and quitters, Coulda-beens, wannabe’s, thought-I-was, isn’t-I-is’s… And everybody in your business.

Linguine linguistics that left my verbal essence saucy, Send a message, leave you sleepin’ next to headless horsey.