I’m trying to do what Eddie Murphy did for his generation. You have to show people, ‚I’m different. I’m not just a comedian.‘ I’m trying to become a rock star.

If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer.

I believe that every one of us has a gift. And I believe that mine is the ability to take the complex and make it simple.

Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.

You know, I’m just 6’9 and 260. And just so happen to be very good at playing the game of basketball.“

I’m speaking for all of us. I’m the spokesman for a generation.

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

I always wanted more – more of everything.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

In high school I wanted to be a rock star and was in a lot of bands.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pele.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.

Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

I’m not going to lie; listen, I’m nice at basketball.

If you’re entering anything where there’s an existing marketplace, against large, entrenched competitors, then your product or service needs to be much better than theirs. It can’t be a little bit better, because then you put yourself in the shoes of the consumer… you’re always going to buy the trusted brand unless there’s a big difference.

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.

I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor, and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.

As a rock star, I have two instincts, I want to have fun, and I want to change the world. I have a chance to do both.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.

You know, God gave me a gift to do other things besides play the game of basketball.

I feel connected to my generation through the music, but I also fear for us. We’re in a very self-destructive state where we’re addicted to outside opinions and we all feel like we have fans.

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

Some artists just ruin their voices because they don’t know any better.

If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.

Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

He had a massive stroke. He died with his tie on. Do you think that could be our generation’s equivalent of that old saying about dying with your boots on?

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

Britney Spears was an incredible dancer. That kid was amazing.

My mind-set is Munich. Most of my generation’s is Vietnam.

Puerto Rico’s relationship with music is everything. It’s an island full of talent and if you grow up there, you grow up living and breathing music.

The whole slacker generation totally didn’t apply to us musically.

I always thought Johnny Carson was just brilliant, and I used to watch him and all the comics that would be on the show every night – and I’d dream about it being me.

You would think that a rock star being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is.

If I had to choose a superhero to be, I would pick Superman. He’s everything that I’m not.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

I performed in a bowling alley before while people were still bowling. Cut the check, and I will perform anywhere.

There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.

I was a good football player, and I had a chance to play with some great players.

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.

I was of the generation where most of the Disney princesses and female characters were not girls that I admired. They just weren’t characters I looked up to and identified with.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

Black or white good parts are hard to come by. A good actor with a good opportunity has a shot; without the opportunity it doesn’t matter how good you are.

There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.

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

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

I’m much more comfortable and confident running out on the field in front of 70,000 people instead of standing in front of a camera trying to say some lines. The people who do that as a profession are very talented because it’s certainly not easy.

Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.

Sometimes, indeed, there is such a discrepancy between the genius and his human qualities that one has to ask oneself whether a little less talent might not have been better.

We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.