Who shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

I can say I’d honestly rather be happy than have 30 to 40 songs that I’ve written about these thrilling, exciting, horrible, unhappy times.

It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: ‚I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.‘

It’s very hard to find your own words – and you don’t actually exist until you have your own words.

It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Well, we’re living in a material world, and I’m a material girl… or boy.

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world… to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.

Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

I always wanted to be loved.

Fame may go by and – so long, I’ve had you.

I read so much stuff that black women say, especially about my relationship. ‚Oh, he left his black wife to go be with some exotic chick.‘ First of all, my girl is black: she’s Jamaican.

There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

Nashville is my home, and the reason why I get to do what I love.

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

It’s with bad sentiments that one makes good novels.

The love of economy is the root of all virtue.

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it’s saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

If I ever felt like I was getting lost in the hurricane that was storming around Nirvana, I’d just go back to Virginia.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it’s not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they’re totally one and the same. I’m always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.

And whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.

Those whom we can love, we can hate; to others we are indifferent.

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn’t have the need to be on the stage; I didn’t feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

A cherub’s face, a reptile all the rest.

The work is the work. The work is not me.

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

To feel not only submitted but willing to be anything or nothing as the Lord wills it – this is, in truth, to sing a song to our Well Beloved.

What I think is fair to say is that, coming out of the Republican camp, there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I’m not who I say I am when it comes to my faith – something which I find deeply offensive, and that has been going on for a pretty long time.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved.

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.

Love is the one wild card.

My music seems to have a bigger mission than I have, which is very soothing but also very strange because people see more in me than I see, which can be terrifying.

I am criticised for not celebrating my goals enough. I am very happy from within, very calm. I just don’t celebrate. I celebrate inside.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.

I know love is the answer.