I want my fans to love themselves. It’s almost like I want to hypnotize them so when they hear my music they love themselves instantly.

What good are fans? You can’t eat applause for breakfast. You can’t sleep with it.

I love imperfections.

Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.

I don’t think I’d ever make an album of just covers because I love writing my own music.

U2’s best work has always been when we didn’t know what we’re doing.

The instrument that I never learned how to play was my fans. You know, they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just want to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them.

It takes more than just a good looking body. You’ve got to have the heart and soul to go with it.

The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers.

And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that’s fine with me!

My goal is just to be respected as a man when I walk down the street with my family. I don’t care what your job is, you’re not gonna talk down to me, you’re not gonna try to get a rise out of me. I’m a man first. And in establishing that, some interesting things have happened.

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.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

I like people and I like them to like me, but I wear my heart where God put it, on the inside.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

From the beginning of my rap career, since I was seen and heard, I always had a store.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

The jazz I love is sweet and pure with raw elements, which is exactly what the good hip-hop is doing now.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

When I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they’re part of a family, not just a tour.

I knew the second I finished the first record – ‚House Of Balloons‘ – and had all this material leftover that a trilogy would be best.

Together with a culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport.

I don’t take pictures when I’m with my kids, for the sake of my kids. It’s important when you’re as busy as I am that you give your kids your time when you’re with them, and nothing compromises that. I’ve been lucky enough to have fans that understand that.

Rap was my drug.

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 never listen to ‚Nevermind.‘ I haven’t listened to it since we put it out. That says something.

Don’t ever criticize yourself. Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‚I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.‘ God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbour. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.

The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.

It’s so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio.

For the chorus of ‚Secrets,‘ we used The Romantics‘ ‚Talking in Your Sleep‘ and ‚Pale Shelter‘ by Tears for Fears. It’s like hip-hop: just grab it.

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

My mami and papi love my music. They’re always listening to the radio waiting for one of my songs to come on. And when it does, they turn up the volume – and turn it back down when it’s over.

I just know that I’m a fan of all different kinds of genres. You’re supposed to be free doing music, and that’s how I feel.

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

I’ve met some Evertonians in the street, and they’ve been friendly. I’ve had taxi drivers who have been Everton fans. They’ve been really nice.

There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.

The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention.

My goal in music is to create nostalgic moments.

I want you to feel happy and enjoy the theatre of my life the way that I do. No matter what happens with my music and wherever I go – that heart of that glamorous girl in New York will never be gone.

It’s not essential for me to have a big debut week; it’s not essential for me to have big radio records.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

You know, Nirvana used to start rehearsals with the three of us just jamming. For, like, a half an hour, just noise and freeform crap – and usually it was crap. But sometimes things would come from it, and some songs on Nevermind came from that, and ‚Heart Shaped Box‘ and stuff on ‚In Utero‘ just happened that way.

I really like hip-hop and rap; that’s my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

A friend doesn’t go on a diet because you are fat.

Metal, I love metal sounds. If I have a stick with me, I just drag it across a fence. And all fences make different sounds, just like people when they laugh.

Feminism… I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, ‚Free to be You and Me.‘

Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.

I’m super serious about music. That’s, like, the only thing I’m serious about.

My music will go on forever. Maybe it’s a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.

Songs for me are like a message in a bottle. You send them out to the world, and maybe the person who you feel that way about will hear about it someday.

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

Most of us are raised to believe we are ordinary. The anchor of the universe is present in every child. A parent only needs to guide and step aside and let them fulfill their dharma. Help children remember that they can do or be anything.

I’ve got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.