“I never cared for politics before Barack Obama. I never thought it mattered to people like me.”

You can’t please everybody. You’d be crazy if you’re trying to. So take some time out to do some things for yourself.

I just enjoy life now. I just enjoy every morning I get to wake up.

No matter what the song was about, I had ’em out there.

I think the hip-hop purists are purists through and through. They’re here to criticize all of us. That’s just how it is. We as MC’s criticize each other. That’s the nature of hip-hop.

I’m talking about me being American and growing up in a crazy world and helping to reflect all different sides of life.

It speaks to your livelihood and it’s not compromised. It’s blunt. It’s raw, straight off the street – from the beat to the voice to the words.

I don’t go out unless I’m working. My quality time is when I’m doing nothing.

I like the way hip-hop is now. It’s grown up enough so that it can get involved with politics if it feels like it.

My fun is not doing the easy work. My fun is doing what’s me.

I think I’ve had the longest career of strength, focus, and still being able to sell records.

You don’t know anything about respect; you don’t know anything about being faithful and loyal to your girlfriend.

I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat.

You can hear, like, you know, Africans and Jamaicans doing it just kind of as, like, a rhythmic, poetic conversation, you know, to a rhythm.

All fatherhood is very important because single mothers shouldn’t have to raise sons or daughters; they need that help.

I’m a big fan of Common. I’m a big fan of Scarface; I’m a big fan of so many people, from Jeezy to… well, there are a lot of people’s music that I respect.

I never stood for any president in my life, never voted, before Barack Obama. It changed my life to vote. It starts there with me.

There has never been, and never again will be a human being like you. There is nothing ordinary about you. If you feel ordinary, it is because you have chosen to hide the extraordinary parts of yourself from the world.

Never use the word “cheap”. Today everybody can look chic in inexpensive clothes (the rich buy them too). There is good clothing design on every level today. You can be the chicest thing in the world in a T-shirt and jeans – it’s up to you.

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

Youve never been to school, ever? If thats true and youre right, i dont think it iswhat made you decide to come this year? You….Your eyes, nora. Those cold, pale gray eyes are surprisingly irresistible. He tipped his head sideways, as if to study me from a new angle. And that killer curvy mouth

Never give up, have the passion. Don’t be afraid.

We are those who, through prevarication, skill or luck, never touched bottom. Those who have, and who have seen the face of the Gorgon, did not return, or returned wordless.

I never lost or fail, not yet conquered. If I fall seven times, I get up eight

Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one.