In fame's temple there is always a niche to be found for rich dunces, importunate scoundrels, or successful butchers of the human race.

There are few mortals so insensible that their affections cannot he gained by mildness, their confidence by sincerity, their hatred by scorn or neglect

Who conquers indolence conquers all other hereditary sins.

Silence is the safest response for all the contradiction that arises from impertinence, vulgarity, or envy.

The quarter of an hour before dinner is the worst that suitors can choose.

The more you speak of yourself, the more you are likely to lie.

Idlers cannot even find time to be idle, or the industrious to be at leisure. We must always be doing or suffering

A moral lesson is better expressed in short sayings than in long discourse.

Suicides pay the world a bad compliment. Indeed, it may so happen that the world has been beforehand with them in incivility. Granted. Even then the retaliation is at their own expense.

Comedians are not usually actors, but imitations of actors.

By fools, knaves fatten; by bigots, priests are well clothed; every knave finds a gull.

Do you hate people?”“I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

One thing I always loved about hip-hop music was the raw, boom-bap element - it felt powerful and manly.

I didn't rebel in the way a lot of people do.

My peers at the time: you know, young black kids from off the streets of Harlem, having these conversations with me in my small, dirty little studio up in Harlem.

Puce Women was my love affair with Hollywood... with all the great goddesses of the silent screen. They were to be filmed in their homes; I was, in effect, filming ghosts.

And we are a people without tears. The things that moved our parents do not move us at all.

The divorce has lasted way longer than the marriage, but finally it's over.

You need lucky breaks to be successful.

People do not respect music anymore... They go by what's hot... If you're hot, you deserve 4 or 5 Grammys... Madonna is a genius and she only has 2 or 3 Grammys... What is that about?