The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

I am not one who – who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot of words around.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

I taught myself how to play the guitar, I taught myself how to play the drums, and I kind of fake doing both of them. But drumming comes more natural to me, and it just feels better.

The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.

I believe in being an innovator.

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

Speak low, if you speak love.

The Heads were the only band on that scene that had a groove.

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

I think, a lot of times when you meet someone, you feel like you need to appear like you’re not interested in them so that they’ll be more interested in you. But what happens when you start showing him that you actually like him? What’s he gonna do then? Play the tape forward; how do you keep a guy like that? I don’t want to sign up for that.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

A man is more frank and sincere with his emotions than a woman. We girls, I’m afraid, have a tendency to hide our feelings.

America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

People like to hear the word ‚love.‘

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

When I was growing up, there were no women in orchestras. Auditioners thought they could tell the difference between a woman playing and a man. Some intelligent person devised a simple solution: Drop a curtain between the auditioners and the people trying out. And, lo and behold, women began to get jobs in symphony orchestras.

The idea that you encourage companies to take their innovative thinkers and think about the most needy – even beyond the market opportunities – that’s something that appropriately ought to be done.

I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.

Japan’s very interesting. Some people think it copies things. I don’t think that anymore. I think what they do is reinvent things. They will get something that’s already been invented and study it until they thoroughly understand it. In some cases, they understand it better than the original inventor.

There are plenty of people who are, I think, completely racist who love hip-hop.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

I never went to rock concerts when I was a kid. I didn’t see any rock & roll bands. I had posters on my wall. I had Beatles records.

It’s a very good question, very direct, and I’m not going to answer it.

Only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other is to let her have it.

Clean fighting solves everything. It ends all bad blood and any ill feelings people have. That’s my thoughts.

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.

My goal in music is to create nostalgic moments.

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

My kind of composing is more like the work of a gardener. The gardener takes his seeds and scatters them, knowing what he is planting but not quite what will grow where and when – and he won’t necessarily be able to reproduce it again afterwards either.

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

I like Cardi B!

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

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

I never played with anything like toys.

I don’t invest in ideas because ideas are a dime a dozen. I could steal the idea pretty quickly.

I love music, and after my first experience with movies, I can’t wait to do more.

The issues a president faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down into 140 characters. Because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military at your command, you can’t make snap decisions. You can’t have a thin skin or the tendency to lash out.

Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.

I have trouble imagining what I could do that’s beyond the practicality of what I can do.

There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; its what we do with them that’s important.

If you want to talk about something new, you have to make up a new kind of language.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

When ‚Paul’s Boutique‘ came out, I was one of the fans that didn’t get it.

I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.

I wish I could play bass like Larry Graham or Bootsy Collins. My God, I’d give up just about everything else for that.

I’ve had moments when I’ve thought about somebody, picked up the phone to call them and they are on the line already, and I think that maybe there’s some vibration, some connection.

It’s amazing how people will give when you don’t ask. Many of them send money because they believe in the message.

I’m not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.

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

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

I leave the genre labeling to other people. I really do. If I were to think too hard about it, that would stifle you creatively. If you think too hard about who other people want you to be as an artist, it stops you from being who you want to be as an artist.

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