Sometimes you have the trends that’s not that cool. You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don’t really have that lifestyle, and then it gives off the wrong thing. And it becomes kinda corny after awhile. It’s really about keeping hip-hop original and pushing away the corniness in it.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

Speed provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.

There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.

In business or in life, don’t follow the wagon tracks too closely.

It’s very important for Christians to be honest with God, which often, you know, God is much more interested in who you are than who you want to be.

I myself have been on my own and utterly independent since I graduated. I haven’t belonged to any company or any system. It isn’t easy to live like this in Japan.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

I’m generous. I give good tips. It’s just – the way I live my life, ironically enough, is: I don’t want anything. I’m not a consumer. I don’t crave objects.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

I’m tough when I have to be, tender when I should be. When you find a really tough guy, he’s not a predator. He doesn’t have to prove himself. Guys who have to pretend to be tough, they ain’t. I’m tough.

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

I’m not really concerned with portraying this tough warrior – I mean, that’s part of my job and I take that very seriously. But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not concerned with what people think.

Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do.

I don’t care about money.

Jesus didn’t die for us so we could pretend to be something we’re not.

I worked out a lot before I was 20. I was hard underneath. I had just a little padding. I was quilted. Always Chanel.

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

I like the good life too much, I’m not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.

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

I don’t feel much pressure to fit in. I never have. I’ve always just wanted to do my thing. I have really good friends and good family, and if I don’t fit in somewhere else, I fit in at home.

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.

Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you’re always going to find a hip-hop tape; that’s all I buy, that’s all I live, that’s all I listen to, that’s all I love.

Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer.

I’ve sat in sushi bars, really fine ones, and I know how hard this guy worked, how proud he is. I know you don’t need sauce. I know he doesn’t even want you to pour sauce. And I’ve seen customers come in and do that, and I’ve seen him, as stoic as he tries to remain, I’ve seen him die a little inside.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

Every man should know, if you’re comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always worries about what the girls think, what the guys think. If you like it, do it.

I’m a human being. I’ve got opinions, I’m not always right, I’m not always on time, I don’t always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

People ask me where I got my singing style. I didn’t copy my style from anybody.

I want people to understand they have to live their own lives the way they want to and not just do what we do.

A ‚No‘ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‚Yes‘ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

I’m not going to say I’m cool, because I don’t really feel that. I just don’t care at all, and I guess that’s what people think is cool.

They’re right to think that about me, because I’m the person most likely to sleep with my female fans, I genuinely love other women. And I think they know that.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists – it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up… I cannot be on the way up again.

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

Here comes 40. I’m feeling my age and I’ve ordered the Ferrari. I’m going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

My only scheme was to be a rapper.

I’ll never feel comfortable taking a strong drink, and I’ll never feel easy smoking a cigarette. I just don’t think those things are right for me.

I like to talk about my obsession with french fries because I don’t want people to think that ‚Let’s Move‘ is about complete, utter deprivation. It’s about moderation and real-life changes and ideas that really work for families.

If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions – for the fun of it – then one day you’ll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one!

Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places. You may take a rhyme pattern or flow from Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap.

This way of life is worth defending.

The great music for so many artists – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones – was always at the moment when they were closest to pop. It would be easy for U2 to go off and have a concept album, but I want us to stay in the pop fray.

Feels good to try, but playing a father, I’m getting a little older. I see now that I’m taking it more serious and I do want that lifestyle.

Maybe some people can wake up and play PlayStation all day, but that’s never been me.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.

It’s an honor for me to represent urban music, reggaeton, trap and hip-hop.

How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said it before.

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.