As much as I love the Western genre, I figured if I kept doing those, I’d eventually run out of steam on that, and that would’ve been the end of it.

I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

If you love something – and there are things that I love – you do want more and more and more of it, but that’s not the way to produce good work.

Attitude and enthusiasm play a big part in my life. I get excited about the things that inspire me. I also believe in laughing and having a good time.

If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

When I was 8 years old, I saw ‚Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of there and was so inspired. I loved the movie, and I knew I wanted to be that guy.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Neither the Christian attitude of love for all mankind nor humane hopes for an organized society must cause us to forget that the ‚human stratum‘ may not be homogeneous.

Remember that your imagination is yours and yours alone. You have the inborn capacity to use it in any way that you choose. No one else is responsible for your imagination. Anything placed in your imagination and held there ultimately becomes your reality.

I tell everybody, I get so much because I give so much. I give freely, I give all my time, give all my money, give all of my soul. I try to motivate people. I try to inspire them.

My career as Nipsey Hussle is based on my life as Ermias Asghedom.

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.

It’s lack that gives us inspiration. It’s not fullness.

Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.

My mother was always fascinated with the fact that I could rhyme so much stuff.

We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.

The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.

The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if you’re really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

I do love being in my studio. Especially at night.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. And when I think about the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children, that’s what I want.

Most poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet, and I’ll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master… it’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order simply to make a poem that you fail. That is why I do not rework poems.

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

When people are around us, they should leave better off than they were previously. Rather than feeling discouraged or defeated, people should feel challenged and inspired after spending any time with you and me.

My songs are the door to every dream I’ve ever had and every success I’ve ever achieved.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

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.

My inspiration is R. Kelly, Michael Jackson, and Prince – for the vocals, anyway.

To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That’s what Norman Mailer did. That’s what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that’s what I do – that’s what I mean to do.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way.

You can’t always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.

Art is going to make a bigger comeback than ever. That’s the upside to things getting challenging.

Who’s my hero? That’s a great question… Well, I think my dad is my hero, because he’s someone I look up to every day.

When I was growing up, there were no women in orchestras. Auditioners thought they could tell the difference between a woman playing and a man. Some intelligent person devised a simple solution: Drop a curtain between the auditioners and the people trying out. And, lo and behold, women began to get jobs in symphony orchestras.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little – somebody who is obsessed by Making.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

I’m not Russell Crowe. I’m not going to do a period piece.

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalise people for this. They must be integrated into society.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

My view is there’s no bad time to innovate.

What inspires me about rap is that it’s written in an almost poetic way. I just think it’s so cool.

I think tolerance and acceptance and love is something that feeds every community.

Women are the engine driving the growth in California’s economy. Women make California’s economy unique.

Substitute ‚damn‘ every time you’re inclined to write ‚very‘; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.