There was a time Michael Jackson couldn’t get his video on MTV because he was considered to be ‚urban.‘ The Michael Jackson. So I literally have to be the Michael Jackson of apparel in order to break down the doors for everyone who will come after I’m gone, after I’m dead.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

The function of posterity is to look after itself.

I made that first record in 2008, alongside the EP, but my label at the time waited three years to release it. They thought maybe someone bigger would buy it, but they didn’t, so in the end they just released it themselves.

I am who I am today because of my mother.

The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world’s popular music is a good thing, for the most part.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

My family’s lineage, we are warriors. The McGregor clan, we are warriors all through. We are famous all through the world for our fighting capabilities of all generations. So I have no doubt that’s stood to me and that led me down this path and gave me what I have.

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

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

I believe in that old adage that ‚as goes California, so goes the country.‘

And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God… They’ll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough – when they are on the very brink of success.

Smart habitation is an integrated area of villages and a city working in harmony and where the rural and urban divide has reduced to thin line.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

Presumptuous for me to say, but at least – at a minimum – I’ve been able to influence the direction of the Democratic Party on foreign policy. And I’ve been relatively – presumptuous to say – relatively successful legislatively in the Senate, being able to win a lot of Republican friends, and being able to cross the aisle.

When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.

If I tried to make a commercial album, it would be a complete flop. I have no idea what the world at large likes.

In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.

What I like about Elvis is the same thing I like about James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince. These guys, back in the day, there was no smoke and mirrors. It was just raw talent. They would step out onstage and command an audience. Talk about awesome.

No rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

For ideas to prevail, many of their defenders have to die in obscurity. Their anonymous influence makes itself felt.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

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

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

I realized the power of hip-hop. I realized how influential this music and this culture are.

You were not created to just get by with an average, unrewarding, or unfulfilling life. God created you to leave your mark on this generation.

I’m just changing the game because I know what the fans want and the people want ‚cause I’m a fan of hip-hop.

For me, the Immaculate Conception is the feast of ‚passive action,‘ the action that functions simply by the transmission through us of divine energy. Purity, in spite of outward appearances, is essentially an active virtue, because it concentrates God in us and on those who are subject to our influence.

I have a cult-like following because I exemplify what it is to be a human being.

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it’s mad that people like me are listened to – you know, rap stars and movie stars.

To go indie is a thing. But to put an album in the stores, you need a distribution label.

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

I actually met The Game in my hood on Crenshaw and Slauson. I was outside on the block with 20 of my homies. I see the Range Rover, and we all walked up to his car. I handed him my CD.

Many people listen to what I have to say and I appear a lot in media, so therefore I influence a lot of people and therefore I have a bigger responsibility because I have a bigger platform.

I make pop culture.

Over the years I’ve met quite a few big rappers. Then it exploded with 50 Cent, and I did a book with him. It’s always a strange meeting of two worlds, it’s very exciting.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

With pop music, the format dictates the form to a big degree. Just think of the pop single. It has endured as a form even in the download age because bands conform to a strict format, and work, often very productively, within the parameters.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

Why should I care about posterity? What’s posterity ever done for me?

Surface R&B doesn’t work any more. The whole heartthrob thing, songs about unrealistic love and tearing your shirt off every show – that’s not really where it’s at any more. It’s becoming harder for those guys to sell records, and harder for them to succeed.

All of my records, I produced, put together completely. All of them. Maybe Drake might come with an idea, and I might finish it. You gotta remember what a producer is. Quincy Jones is a producer.

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin‘ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

I love it when people say things to me in public and want to meet me, because I want to meet them! Early on, my manager told me, ‚If you want to sell 500,000 records, then go out there and meet 500,000 people.‘

I put together amazing records, whether that’s finding the beat or putting the right hook on there, and picking the right artists on the record. That’s me being an A&R. And I’m making sure that they give me their best.

I can’t deny that label-support gave me a leg up – though not every successful artist needs it.

My grandpa was a preacher.

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

I wanted to sell a million records, and I sold a million records. I wanted to go platinum; I went platinum. I’ve been working nonstop since I was 15. I don’t even know how to chill out.

Madonna and I are very different. Just saying. We’re very different. I wouldn’t make that comparison at all, and I don’t mean to disrespect Madonna: she’s a nice lady, and she’s had a fantastic, huge career – biggest pop star of all time.