I made the record that my life had me make. Each one is like a diary.

Love , creativity, and opportunity is in the air. Take it in and do your thing.

Music is my life, it is a reflection of what I go through.

One day we're going to watch people fight to the death, like Roman times. Instead of being in a coliseum, we're going to watch it on TV.

I've woken up from dreams and the whole song is there. I'm listening to it in my dreams. I consciously have to wake myself up and get a tape recorder because I hear it like a record.

There's certain things in life that I love. One is architecture. And music, culture, food, people. New Orleans has all of that.

Being free is a state of mind.

The idea of having to conform to someone else's ideal is unacceptable. I'm gonna be me. And if I can't be me, then I'd rather not do it.

We weren't put here to be miserable. We were put here to do the best we can, and we should take our energy and improve our state of being.

I am not trying to change the world. I am just offering my gift that God gave me, and if somebody is moved by it, that's beautiful.

I've always been into films. I've been offered lots of films but they've always been these very stereotypical roles. They wanted me to play some gangster or street guy, or pimp, drug addict.

Never believe anything a writer tells you about himself. A man comes to believe in the end the lies he tells himself about himself.

You're not famous until my mother has heard of you.

Washington is a place where good ideas go to die.

No matter what, if you're a parent, you have to make sacrifices.

The world is such-and-such or so-and-so only because we tell ourselves that that is the way it is.

Writing is like paying myself a formal visit.

Words are often things also, and very precious, especially on the gravest occasions. Without "words," and the truth of things that is in them, what were we?

I can always tell which is the front end of a horse, but beyond that, my art is not above the ordinary.

With dance, it's about education. I'm teaching a lot. I teach the foundations of hip-hop.

Seek the tarnish and you shall find