Even as a child, Muhammad Ali got perverse pleasure out of being different. He liked the attention it got him, but most of all he just liked being himself: odd and independent.

In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

There isn’t anybody that looks like me without clothes on.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

I don’t think there’s anything unique about human intelligence.

Hip-hop is ever changing but you’ll always have the pack. And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

No one tells me what to do with my music. Real. My mom doesn’t tell what to say, how is someone else going to?

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

I was called ‚Dumbo,‘ like the elephant, as a child because I couldn’t understand things at school.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

But ever since I was a kid, I was always the winner.

There is no unique picture of reality.

The assertion that ‚all men are created equal‘ was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.

Muhammad Ali is a legend, a hero of mine.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.

Cuba came to be the last country to get rid of Spanish colonialism and the first to shake off the heinous imperialist tutelage.

That great Cathedral space which was childhood.

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

My parents pretty much realized that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really.

I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.

I don’t have a type. I don’t have a specific kind of human being. It’s just kind of an X-factor of sorts. Everybody I’ve ever dated has been a case-by-case situation.

We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.

A lot of people tell me a lot of things about my conduct, my game, my future… but I try to stay away from their words of wisdom. I don’t let it distract me. On the field, you will be facing the ball alone. If you fail, you will the only one to blame. So, you should be the one deciding for yourself.

I’ve always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.

I’ve never bought into any sort of hard and fast, this-box/that-box characterization. People are individuals. Yes, they may be expected to be a particular way. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be that way.

I’m not who people expect me to be. I’m not Henry Kissinger.

You aren’t normal if you sing to people. You aren’t a normal person. It’s nerve-racking.

From childhood on, I did sit in the courtroom watching my father argue cases and talk to juries.

I grew up in a very nice house in Houston, went to private school all my life and I’ve never even been to the ‚hood. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ‚hood.

Honestly, I could care less about other people’s opinions about me.

I didn’t go to school for a full year until I was 12. In the summer I was a wild child in the woods, with no shoes, and in the fall it was back to the city, shoe shops and school.

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

The only thing I know is I ain’t changing my brand. I know what I believe. I’m confident in what I know. And I’m gonna say it. And if folks like it, wonderful. If they don’t like it, I understand.

My style has always been my own, just like my flow and style.

In 1979, Iranians carried out an illegitimate act: They overthrew a tyrant that the United States had imposed and supported, and moved on an independent path, not following U.S. orders.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

My father… removed from Kentucky to… Indiana, in my eighth year… It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up… Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher… but that was all.

I don’t compare myself to anyone else; I don’t make comments about anyone else because they do what feels right for them, and that’s okay by me.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

I’ll tell you what I was like as a child. I was a good person. I was high-spirited but I was a big reader.

My main goal is to be a self-made man and have control over what’s mine.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

Maybe ‚loner‘ is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being on my own.

I’ve been in the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus since I was 8.

I don’t spend that much time being introspective, believe it or not. All I know is that I grew up not questioning God because that’s how you are. God was there like the birds and the wind.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

One thing I want to make clear, as far as my own rebirth is concerned, the final authority is myself and no one else, and obviously not China’s Communists.

I may be no better, but at least I am different.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

I learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.

I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece.

Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss.

I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.

You should do what other people do, unless you have a very good reason not to.

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.