Being simple and complicated at the same is what makes Jay-Z so great.

Don't be flirting with your gift, you better marry it

It's hard as a person to just put your life out there for the world to judge. That's what music is and what you're supposed to do with the art, live and release it to the world.

I love myself, I no longer need Cupid...

Never blame a man for misfortune, do it yourself.

I was the darkest skinned person in my family. I remember how I used to feel - like I wasn't pretty enough, or I wasn't good enough.

Some days you're depressed, some days you're happy, some days you're broken hearted. People need music for therapy, to heal them or speak for them when they can't describe how they're feeling.

I want to be great at what I do. I don't want to be just an average rapper.

When you tell a story and connect with somebody through an emotion that's why they like songs.

When I was young what made me really want to be a rapper was when I saw MC Lyte.

As learnèd commentators viewIn Homer more than Homer knew.

Was he leaving home, or going home?

Empower us women and we will change this whole entire world.

I was the dork in high school who sang musical numbers up and down the hallways.

Everyone seems to want to be somewhere they aren't. Choose to be where you are right now and you will be happier than 90 percent of humankind.

The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the older man who will not laugh is a fool.

Words are one thing, deeds are quite another.

I definitely aspire to be someone like Tyra Banks, who's created an empire for herself.

It is the institutions of society, not parental genes, that bestow the blessings of ownership of productive capital.

Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern man,is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God.

For me, thats one of the important things about cooking. What was good enough yesterday may not be good enough today.