All that self-expression has just created a generation of morons, hooked on an endless appetite for rubbish.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice. And if you’re always the new kid, you never get a chance to adapt, so your confidence is just zilch.

I have the space and liberty to create.

I praticed making faces in the mirror and it would drive my mother crazy. She used to scare me by saying that I was going to see the devil if I kept looking in the mirror. That fascinated me even more, of course.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.

The people in my songs are all me.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

For some reason, I’m really comfortable talking about my personal life in songs.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.

I want to look my best for God. So many people have the attitude that if you’re a Christian you’ve got to dress bad, wear an old color, not do anything to your hair, have nothing. It’s no wonder that Christianity is not very attractive. I mean, how many people do you know in a Western culture that’s going to go, ‚Yeah, give me some of that?‘

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it.

I wanted to write.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

It’s a representation of yourself, and you can express a lot of your creativity with what your wearing.

Through my films I’m eventually trying to one day tell the truth. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get there, but I’m slowly letting pieces of myself out there and then maybe by the time I’m 85, I’ll look back and say, ‚All right, that about sums it up.‘

I always try to be myself. Ever since I was an introverted kid, I’d get on stage and be able to break out of my shell.

I’m an expert typist. I learned in high school. I would close my eyes and just type without worrying about mistakes. I tried to penetrate my heart, and as I let my thoughts drift, things bubbled up to the surface.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

Public behavior is merely private character writ large.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do is to choose a notable and joyous dress for men. There would be more joy in life if we were to accustom ourselves to use all the beautiful colours we can in fashioning our own clothes.

I said I was ‚The Greatest,‘ I never said I was the smartest!

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can’t knock it.

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they’re stuck in that safe place.

If you’re living in your time, you cannot help but to write about the things that are important.

I’m gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they’re gonna like. It doesn’t really matter.

I know some people might think it odd – unworthy even – for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people’s poet so I write for the people.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.

In many ways, I’ve been writing personal stories all my life.

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

My priority is my books, at least at this point. What I have to do is write the narrative of this time.

I’d rather tell you how I really feel.

I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.

An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.

I’m a huge fan of R. Kelly’s. He’s a musical genius and probably the most prolific artist of the generation before mine.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

I don’t believe in personal immortality; the only way I expect to have some version of such a thing is through my books.

I don’t really have a gimmick or a ‚thing.‘ I’m one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

I don’t see myself as a pop artist. Like, when you hear ‚pop,‘ you’re like, ‚Oh, bubblegum, jumpy little girly stuff,‘ and I feel like, ‚Uh-uh. That’s not me.‘

I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.

I’ve never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I’ve only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.

If I could write directly on a typewriter or a computer, I would do it. But keyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page.

I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny.

With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That’s why we’re such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, ‚Are people interested?‘ But I think our band has something and they know we don’t just put albums out. We do think about it.

There’s not some idea I’m going to create a work that’s going to change everybody’s consciousness.