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.

There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.

Man the individual consoles himself for his passing with the thought of the offspring or the works which he leaves behind.

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 feel like I’m changing pop culture.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

If we go on your iPhone and go to the dictionary and look up ‚humble,‘ 80 per cent of the definition is negative. It’s a controlling word. It’s a way to control the masses and to control the sheep.

My mother, I suppose, is still a main figure in my life because her life was so sad and unfair, and she so brave, but also because she was determined to make me into the Sunday-school-recitation little girl I was, from the age of seven or so, fighting not to be.

The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. More: You have ceded them power.

Pop is totally results-oriented and there is a very strong feedback loop.

He who molds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

When I did ‚Bird,‘ it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn’t in it and second because most of the films I’d been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.

A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.

In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.

My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I’m old.

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to 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.‘

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.

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.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

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.

You don’t hear no artists from Compton showing vulnerability.

The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people – as remarkable as the telephone.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.

The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.

Because I’m not in a record deal, I don’t have to operate in an album format.

What I’d really like to control is not machines, but people.

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

I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar.

I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women’s issues to the center of our foreign policy.

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

The unsuccessful person is burdened by learning, and prefers to walk down familiar paths. Their distaste for learning stunts their growth and limits their influence.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

I like Italian movies. I was frequently there in the ’60s, in Rome and the vicinity. It was a great period in life. I was very influenced by their stuff.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

I respect Soulja Boy.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

In 2013, the week before I dropped ‚Crenshaw,‘ ‚Complex‘ wrote an article that said that Nipsey Hussle is one of the top 25 underperforming artists. I was so offended that I responded with my own opinion about these journalists – their point of view is not validated in our culture.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

No one can pass through life, any more than he can pass through a bit of country, without leaving tracks behind, and those tracks may often be helpful to those coming after him in finding their way.

The music industry is a strange combination of having real and intangible assets: pop bands are brand names in themselves, and at a given stage in their careers their name alone can practically gaurantee hit records.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very much weakened.

Nicki Minaj, will you marry me?

I urge everyone to be trendsetters for Azza Suleiman. Let’s make it one fashion which everyone will want to follow.

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.

But I’ve got to think of myself as the luckiest guy. Robert Johnson only had one album’s worth of work as his legacy. That’s all that life allowed him.

Here in England, everyone’s a pop star, innit, whereas in America they believe in the term artist.

I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people’s opinions will rush in from all quarters.

One has children in the expectation of dying before them. In fact, you want to make damn sure you die before them, just as you plant a tree or build a house knowing, hoping that it will outlive you. That’s how the human species has done as well as it has.

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

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

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: ‚What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.‘

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

No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.