“When I speak to kids I tell them, ‘Hey, you think your parents are a pain in the ass now, but they’re going to get smarter as you get older.’”

What does politically correct mean? If you’re fat, don’t ask me if you’re fat, because I’m gonna tell you the truth. You’re fat.

The meek may inherit the earth, but they wont get the ball from me.

If I weren’t earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.

But when I see a story on welfare on television, they only show black people.

I don’t hate anyone, at least not for more than 48 minutes, barring overtime.

He’ll never be Jordan. This clearly takes him out of the conversation. He can win as much as he wants to.

I like to help poor people who got no chance. If rich people don’t, who will? Not other poor people, that’s for sure.

I’m just what America needs: another unemployed black man.

There’s only 5 real jobs in the world. Teacher, fireman, policeman, doctor and somebody who is in the armed service. If you don’t have one of those 5 jobs, you shouldn’t take your life that serious.

If all babies are so cute, how the hell do we have so many ugly people in the world?

I think you have an obligation to be honest.

You know what I always say about basketball whenever anybody tried to tell me the Knicks are gonna be good: They’re old. Old people don’t get healthy. They die.

You can’t start a diet in the middle of the week, that’s just stupid.

I remember sitting down with the Rockets and saying, ‘Yeah. I’m going to retire.’ They said, ‘Well, we’ll give you $9 million.’ And I said, ‘You got a pen on you?’

If you’re scarde to fail, you don’t deserve to be successful.

People always say turn the other cheek. If you turn the other cheek, I’m gonna hit you in the other cheek too.

The greatest legacy we can leave our children is happy memories.

I was seeing the effects of what music can do — how it can be healing and bring people joy, but on the flip side, there was this ugliness. I saw the greed and the He-Mans that were willing to f*ck over children.

In my travels all over the world, I have come to realize that what distinguishes one child from another is not ability, but access. Access to education, access to opportunity, access to love.

Nothing is more completely the child of art than a garden.

Racism is a grown-up disease, and we should stop using our kids to spread it.

I felt like there was something I needed to do – speaking to kids and sharing my story with them and helping them understand racism has no place in the minds and hearts of children.

Sooner strangle an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.

It’s wrong for parents to bury their children. It should be the other way around.