I never had any plans to become a producer when I was a kid. I wanted to be a DJ, like most other kids at the time. Then my mum bought me a Casio keyboard and I started to sample sounds that I liked.

I wanna be selective... very selective. Right now, hip-hop's very boring to me. It's no excitement.

I been through some junk. It ain't all been peaches and cream.

The same people who smile in my face would be the same ones to talk behind my back.

I don't think about other people. If I did, I'd wanna compete. But I don't think like that, because I'm above everybody.

Everyone wants to work with the big new producer or the hot new singer. The key is to find them before they're hot.

My style is to take something unexpected and make it into a hit. That's what I do.

It hurts when people put you down.

Greatness can never be over because you can lay it down for a minute.

I have ideas whirring around my head all the time.

You don't question where the music comes from, because it all comes from God.

Love is disgusting when you no longer possess yourself.

Any anger I feel vanishes. What is left cannot be described. It is guilt piled onto emptiness and set afire.

Watch every detail that affects the accuracy of your work.

Every relationship is an experiment and what one learns from it is so fascinating.

Time glides with undiscover'd haste; The future but a length behind the past.

When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started...

All my life I have always known I was born to greatness.

It is astonishing how the human animal survives its misfortunes.

Southern gentility is evocative to me.