Jay-Z Quotes

Screamin' 'Carpe Diem!' until I'm a Dead Poet.

Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be And so I put this on my life Nobody or nothing will ever come between us And I promise I'll give my life

I thought I would be more inspired to have all these new feelings to talk about, but I really just want to hang out with my daughter.

Jealousy’s a weak emotion.

I'm far from being god, but I work god damn hard.

I believe you can speak things into existence.

I use a lot of double meanings. I hide 'em like Easter eggs.

There's the gift, there's the spirit, and there's the work-all three have to come together. If one of those things is off, it can stop you from becoming who you were meant to be.

Is to have had and lost/Better than not having at all?

[T]he truth is you don't need some external demon to take control of you to turn you into a raging, money-obsessed sociopath, you only need to let loose the demons you already have inside of you.

I believe excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over.

Rap has been a path between cultures in the best tradition of popular music.

Treat my first like my last and the last like my first and my thirst is the same as- when I came.

Now success was like lust, she's good to the touch, She's good for the moment, but she's never enough

Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who've never done anything because if you haven't been successful, then you don't know how it feels to lose it all.

No matter where you go, you are what you are playa.

We'll have a baby who stutters repeatedly We'll name him history

So many people that I've seen can't get clean water. It's a crime.

I'm not saying I'm God. But as far as lyrics, I'm God MC.

I'm not concerned with noise because I'm playing the long game.

Your future is ahead of you. Imagine the notion of the past fifteen years of your life being a blip in your story.

If the beat is time, flow is what we do with that time, how we live through it. The beat is everywhere, but every life has to find its own flow.

When I come back like Jordan, wearing the 4-5. It ain't to play games with you, it's to aim at you, probably maim you. If I owe you I'm blowin' you to smithereens.

You could name practically any problem in the hood and there'd be a rap song for you.

The burden of poverty isn't just that you don't always have the things you need, it's the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you'd do anything to lift that burden.

Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth. People respect success. They respect big. They don't even have to like your music. If you're big enough, people are drawn to you.

You know the type: loud as a motorbike but wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight.

I'm trying to tell the story in the most clear, concise, and truthful way, taking those everyday words and phrases and capturing them in a way that they become something else.

I love you so, But why I love you, I'll never know.

I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man!

I got 99 Problems but Mitt ain't one.

No matter where you go you are what you are player and you can try to change but that's just the top layer man you was who you was before you got here

How could I be out there and not do anything?

Stop screamin', you know the demon said it's best to die, And even if Jehovah witness, bet he'll never testify, D'Evils.

Everyone who makes music is a good collaborator at their foundation because in order to make music, you have to connect to it in a way that other people can't.

Hip-hop gave a generation a common ground that didn't require either race to lose anything; everyone gained.

My tears is tatted, my rag in my pocket / Im just looking for love, I know somebody got it

Used to rock a throwback ballin on the corner, now I rock tailored suit lookin' like a owner.

The average rap life is two or three albums. You're lucky to get to your second album in rap!

I get my by any means on, whenever there's a drought get your umbrellas out because that's when I brainstorm.

I jack, I rob, I sin. Aw man, I'm Jackie Robinson 'Cept when I run base, I dodge the pen

The most amazing feeling I feel Words can't describe what I'm feeling for real Maybe I paint the sky blue My greatest creation was you.

You put the right artist on the right track in the studio and leave the door open to let God in.

All these ways we classify things as R&B and hip-hop and rock... It's bullshit. It's all music. If you put yourself in that box, then you won't be able to hear that it's all music at its soul.

And now we're lethal, infected with D'Evils

I spring train in the winter, around early December...

You ain't gotta go to church to find your God.

Wherever I go, I bring the culture with me, so that they can understand that it's attainable. I didn't do it any other way than through hip-hop.

If I don't show the world growth, how are we going to grow?

It was a weird mix of emotions. One day, your best friend could be killed. The day before, you could be celebrating him getting a brand-new bike.