The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.

I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It’s like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I’d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.

The wage for most musicians is a modest amount, and that includes me some of the time.

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

Performing is a thing in itself, a distinct skill, different from making recordings. And for those who can do it, it’s a way to make a living.

There’s something about music that encourages people to want to know more about the person that made it, and where it was recorded, what year it was done, what they were listening to, and all this kind of stuff. There’s something that invites all this obsessive behavior.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

Here’s the thing: every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.

My career as Nipsey Hussle is based on my life as Ermias Asghedom.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

Morse conquered his electrical difficulties although he was only a painter, and I don’t intend to give in either till all is completed.

Of course, it does depend on the people, but sometimes I’m invited places to kind of brighten up a dinner table like a musician who’ll play the piano after dinner, and I know you’re not really invited for yourself. You’re just an ornament.

Well, in order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times.

No one sells a song better than the person that wrote it.

My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

The greatest thrill in my life was to represent the United States of America.

I taught myself to play the guitar by listening to Paul Simon records, working it out note by note. He is an incredibly intelligent musician. He’s not someone who has a natural outpouring of melody like McCartney or Dylan, who are just terribly prolific with musical ideas.

I’m just blessed, man, to be able to represent solidarity with the small schools I went to.

Mick Fleetwood was one of my first interviews. And if you’ve ever talked to that dude, he’s the sweetest guy in the world – he’s just a trip.

The key is to vote because we need a vote to put the people in power that we want to represent us.

There are folks who now know black families – like the Johnsons on ‚Black-ish‘ or the folks on ‚Modern Family.‘ They become part of who you are. You share their pains. You understand their fears. They make you laugh, and they change how you see the world.

I never wanted to sing. I just wanted to play rhythm guitar – hide in the back and just play.

If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little – somebody who is obsessed by Making.

The reason that I’m here at all is because of my relationship with my family and their encouragement of me to be a musician and to work hard. As long as I stay there in that space, I can do anything. That’s my truth.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.

To not be modest about it, you’ll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I’ve worked with have done their best work by far with me.

The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

I just want to keep writing music.

I’m a singer, not a politician, and I think you don’t want the two to get confused. It’s not OK to be on CNN talking about people starving and then tell the interviewer that your new album is coming out in six months.

I don’t really like to call myself a brand, and I don’t like to think of myself as a brand. I’m a singer, a songwriter, a musician and a performer. And an actress, and all the other things that I do. When you add it all together, some might call it a brand, but that’s not my focus.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

I was doing sold-out shows before I got radio play.

All I do is make music.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, ‚Truth is the daughter of Time.‘

In order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.

Even though I’m known as a pop musician, I have a seriousness about what I do.

June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.

I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

No person who is not a great sculptor or painter can be an architect. If he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only be a builder.

When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like ‚Bird,‘ I use 90% black people.

A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.

I think a poet is anybody who wouldn’t call himself a poet.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.

The reason I don’t tour is that I don’t know how to front a band. What would I do? I can’t really play anything well enough to deal with that situation.

I think the whole stigma of ‚black movies‘ is slowly being lost. When you look at movies like ’12 Years A Slave,‘ to ‚The Butler,‘ to ‚The Best Man,‘ to ‚Ride Along,‘ to even ‚Think Like a Man‘ from last year – these movies are just good movies.

Joyce is a poet and also an elephantine pedant.

A musician should only sound like what they do, and no two musicians sound the same. It’s an individual-feel thing, you know?

I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.

A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

Apple has given me a platform to spread music. They’re giving us Latinos a chance to shine.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

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

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

And I saw the sax line-up that he had behind him and I thought, I’m going to learn the saxophone. When I grow up, I’m going to play in his band. So I sort of persuaded my dad to get me a kind of a plastic saxophone on the hire purchase plan.

As an artist, as a brand, as a rapper, as a musician, you know you got a window and a lot of people, even an athlete; they don’t have no exit strategy. It’s just living in the false reality that it’s going to be like this forever.