It’s always great to perform at home in the good ol‘ U.S.A.

Everyone I look up to is bringing me into the tech world. You’d be surprised by all the music people in it, invested in it.

One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can’t swim anymore and had the swimming pool covered over. Now it’s what I call the dance pavilion, and so I and my friends sit out and put music on and watch people dance.

When Britain and the U.S. invaded Iraq, it was with the reasonable expectation that it was going to increase the threat of terror, as it has.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I remember coming to New York in 1974 to do a play here called ‚Equis.‘ And I remember the first morning getting up and walking around the streets, and I thought, ‚I’m home.‘ I felt really at peace here.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have any songs that are about how much I love someone. They’re all either about, like, ‚I hate you,‘ or ‚You make me hate me.‘

Compton got such a legacy in hip-hop.

Everyone my age probably grew up listening to the ‚perreos‘ of Plan B.

It’s important to love in hip hop.

It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you’ve got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I’m not sure any country, either the United States or I don’t hear of anyone else, who’s willing to take on that responsibility.

I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.

I think when the president of the United States calls for military action, he should do it for a united people, especially when the methods have been so cruel, so explicitly directed at Americans.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

The vibe on ‚Starboy‘ comes from that hip-hop culture of braggadocio, from Wu-Tang and 50 Cent, the kind of music I listened to as a kid.

In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States.

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

I’ve always tended to write songs prolifically.

I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.

Once music ceases to be ephemeral – always disappearing – and becomes instead material… it leaves the condition of traditional music and enters the condition of painting. It becomes a painting, existing as material in space, not immaterial in time.

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, ‚Huh. It works. It makes sense.‘

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

There’s something missing in the music industry today… and it’s music. Songs you hear don’t last, it’s just product fed to you by the industry.

I belong to a gospel choir. They know I am an atheist but they are very tolerant.

Confidence, as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I loved cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved.

You know why Foo Fighters have been a band for 20 years? Because I’ve never really told anybody what I think of them. The last thing you ever want to do is go to therapy with your band.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

Leadership is absolutely vital if there are comparable countries which can affect the security of the world you live in. Between Lincoln and Roosevelt’s time, America was protected by huge oceans and, in practice, by the British navy. Today, it’s different, and the obsession of the Obama administration has been for retrenchment.

My music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

I’ve always been a fan of melody and emotional melancholy, whether it was Rites of Spring or Tears for Fears or Neil Young. If I hear a song that has a sweet melody, I’m a sucker for it, whether it’s Linkin Park or Little Richard.

Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.

Akron, Ohio, is my home. I will always be here. I’m still working out at my old high school.

Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.

I know a lot of artists say this, but it’s hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There’s no tricks.

I think America has always been polarized.

My fans don’t feel like I hold anything back from them. They know whatever I’m going through now, they’ll hear about it on a record someday. They’ll hear the real story. There’s a little bit of lag time. It’s not as instant as going on a gossip blog. But it’s much more accurate.

I get a thrill meeting kids who are into alternative music.

I’m not into albums that are meant to sound perfect.

I hate the idea of genres.

I tell my fellow reggaetoneros, keep giving it your all and bring more creativity.

My favorite record label of all time is Motown. That era of music was my favorite.

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 grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.

It seems almost backwards to me that my music seems the more emotional outlet, and the art stuff seems more about ideas.

The quality of research in the U.S. is absolutely the best.

An operatic voice is like no other.

If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia.

There’s nothing more comfortable or leisurely than having a pair of Ugg slippers on in the house.

I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer’s block.

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 always loved that old song ‚Banks of the Ohio‘ – it was always such a man’s song, so I’ve always wanted to record it.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.