I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.

Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.

The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

Love always ends differently and it always begins differently – especially with me.

With music, you often don’t have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don’t know why.

I find only freedom in the realms of eccentricity.

Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‚nirvana‘ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.

I was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death.

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

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.

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

This has always been my life and no one else’s, and that’s how it’s always been since the day I came in it.

I would say that jazz is my own language.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

If you gonna wear the mohawk, you stick with it. You don’t just be dibby-dabbing. You make up your mind.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

I’ve rarely seen video screens used well in a music concert.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that.

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings – words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

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.‘

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

The first rap CD that I had, it was so different for me. The energy, the wordplay, all that caught my attention, and I liked it.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

I owe everything to Nirvana. But I can’t let that overshadow the future. For the first few years, I didn’t even want to talk about Nirvana. Partly because it was just painful to talk about losing Kurt but also because I wanted the Foo Fighters to mean something.

When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That’s what inspired the ‚Off to the Races‘ melodies. That’s one of the times when you’re feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive.

You always have to remember that if you say something negative, it’s going to come back to haunt you.

Words are loaded pistols.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I’d be a damn‘ fool if they weren’t.

I love Wiz Khalifa.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.

Coffee is a language in itself.

People don’t realise how difficult it is to work with people day in and day out that know absolutely nothing.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.

What do I care about the purring of one who cannot love, like the cat?

There’s always gonna be rock n‘ roll bands, there’s always gonna be kids that love rock n‘ roll records, and there will always be rock n‘ roll.

I don’t think people are going to talk in the future. They’re going to communicate through eye contact, body language, emojis, signs.

I made an album I’m very proud of, and that’s about it.

Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.

Now, we are selling over 5 million songs a day now. Isn’t that unbelievable? That’s 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

I don’t just listen to rap.

I’m sure most parents read to their children to explain what certain things mean. So books are a good way to convey a message to anybody. Everybody reads.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

I searched for years I found no love. I’m sure that love will never be a product of plasticity.

I liberate minds with my music. That’s more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.

There is no love of life without despair of life.

By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.

When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn’t truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn’t come from your spirit and your soul, it’s an injustice to your position. And so, I’m really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to.