“I am an artist. I am interested in life.”

My happiest days are those in which I do good work.

I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying.

Let us try to understand each other’s problems, for in modern warfare there is no victory.

We think too much and feel too little.

People’s affection hurts me but it’s a beautiful pain.

One cannot do humour without a great sympathy for one’s fellow man.

What a sad business, being funny.

Simplicity is not a simple thing.

Let’s call them years of a friendly misalliance.

The world cannot be wrong if in this world there’s you.

My costume helps me to express my conception of the average man, of almost any man, of myself.

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.

I see no tragedy in the loneliness of old age, only the convenience of it.

Art was an additional emotion applied to skillful technique.

Imagination means nothing without doing.

Deep down we all have a sense of our own inadequacy about coping with life.

Well, predominately, if I’m writing for another artist, I’m sitting there with them and we’re writing it together.

I try not to think retrospectively. It’s important, as an artist, to look forward, always. I do try to take work that involves some challenge. If you approach a piece of work and you’re going, “Yeah, yeah, I can do that,” then that’s kind of a red flag.

You stand your ground and you perform your art. That’s what the artist does. The artist is about perfection.

My mom was real into like a lot of different musical artists, real artists, even back when Jay-Z and Beyonce was together.

I’m really an artist. I really do this. I don’t need the money. It doesn’t matter to me.

No artist that beefs with me or talks down on my name has that many platinum songs. They’re all gold.

One thing that I do want to say is Drake, as an artist, anybody has to respect him. He’s in the game, and he’s been in the game – he has longevity, even if he doesn’t write or writes his music.

I’m an artiste… I dance, I act, and I do a lot of things that’s got to do with arts, and that’s my space. I feel happiest in that space.