Action Bronson quotes:

You have to take control of your own life, your own destiny, and your own careers. You can't leave everything up to someone else, 'cause then you can look at them and blame them.

Did I collect baseball cards? I've got 10 books full of plastic in my mother's house. All the Upper Decks, the Fleers, the Fleer Ultras. My grandfather brought me to the trade shows. I collected Marvel cards, too.

I grew up in such a melting pot. There's more ethnicities in Queens than there is in any place on the planet. So you grow up knowing things about other cultures.

I'll always be into sports. Sports is part of my life forever. My TV stays on ESPN all day long, I'm one of those. I don't even listen to music in the car; all I listen to is sports talk.

I get inspired in certain places. You have to write in places like Amsterdam or Paris or New Zealand, when you're standing on a yacht, looking out at the middle of the ocean.

I'm a championship handball player. I'm a championship softball and baseball player. I used to be an extremely talented center in high school in football. I also dabbled in lacrosse and soccer. I'm really good at billiards, darts, shuffleboard.

I love to cook a meal for the so-called holidays. You always need the turkey. I like making a good BBQ brisket as well.

I'm still a huge Yankees fan. Growing up, Jeter was my guy, but Bernie Williams was my favorite player.

I'm not the type of guy to go so deep with the concept songs, but there's deep thought in everything. Maybe it's not just a repetitive hook telling you what the song is about - you have to use your brain a little bit.

My childhood was great, honestly. I have all these incredible memories of my childhood. I was an only child. I always had all my cousins around. I had my grandparents around. I had my parents around. I had my uncles around - whatever.

I get angry real quick, but I also cool down just as fast. Albanians don't want to deal with anything in the moment.

I'm a man of different types of flavors and tastes. I like listening to things that inspire me. Older music, when instruments were being played, not just people hitting buttons. It's manlier. You're touching things to make sounds appear.

My 9-year-old daughter can recite every line from 'Easy Rider,' and that is not an easy song to do. She raps all of Nicki Minaj and everything; she's dope. She has my musical ear for sure. She sings, and she's beautiful. It's very powerful.

Everything is creative. It's all relative to me. No matter what, you've gotta use your imagination, use your senses.

I'm an honorable human being. I know what to do and what not to do, and if I'm wrong, I always apologize. I'm a big enough man to do that.

New York was at the forefront of rap, so because of all the great people who have gone before me, being a rapper from Queens, I have to live up to those standards. I'm basically just a regular guy who says what he feels and likes to joke. I like long walks on the beach... and I love rap.

I'm a piece of work, man. I will do what I want, at all times, always. Nobody's going to persuade me one way or another. I can't be persuaded. I take criticism, I listen, I analyze, but at the end of the day, I make the decisions. Because that's the way I started, and that's the way I'm going to finish.

The restaurant business is something that you have to treat like a baby. You have to constantly be there. You can't trust it to anybody else, because no one's going to love it like you do.

I could never change the overall feel of my music. That's why people like me - I don't follow trends, and I don't follow crowds.

All I can do is put out the good stuff, and people will make the decision on whether they like it. My fans are very intelligent people. They're not stupid. They know what's good.

I've started getting acclimated to writing on the road and on the spot. I just let whatever I feel at the time come out, instead of really sitting there and taking days to write just one song.

This is just rap. I'm not trying to make people think I'm some sort of scientific wizard or inspirational poet.

I'm naturally a nice person. I'm not trying to have any problems with people. I'm done with the drama and trouble. I want a stress-free life.

I just do whatever I do, and put it out there without tryin' to cater to anybody. If you like it, you like it.

I'm the Bjorn Boerg of table tennis.

I hope I have a long career, but I really don't think about the future like that. I live, like, for right now, honestly. I take it however it comes.

If I would make a song dedicated to any woman, it would have to be my mom because, you know, she's been there since I came out of her. She would have to be the one... my mom or my daughter.

No one raps about food like I do. I rap about fine dishes - like, all kinds of things that only real chefs and real foodies are going to know about.

The best rappers I know are, like, air-conditioner men.

I have to be able to rap. I don't have the look. I don't have the typical slim-dude, fancy-clothes look. That's not me. I have to be able to rap - there is no other choice, or else I get eaten alive.

The first rappers I ever got into were Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, and Nas. Those are the guys. Those are the dudes that flipped my wig.

I don't wanna be preached to. Unless it's in a beautiful voice, I don't want that.

You don't judge a book by a cover. I'm not your typical rap look.

When you start putting too much thought into it, the music starts getting too revealing. You don't need to know all my inner thoughts.

I like every girl. Every kind of girl that there is, I like.

Anything that catches my ear, I'm into. Things that are different, that change what you're listening to.

I'm gonna be honest. I don't care about much. I care about people liking my music. I made it very far without nothing being on radio.

I guess I am a rapper. It's weird to be called that, or tell someone that's your profession.

I live in the moment, and I reflect later.

Molto Mario' was the show that sparked my entire interest in cooking.

You can make a hit song in 15 minutes. I don't know about someone else's song, but songs that people like of mine, I've created in 15 minutes or less.

I grew up in the '90s. My goal isn't to be a '90s rapper, but I have little hints of '90s influence in my music. It's a modern approach to classic rap.

When I think of influential females in hip-hop, my mind goes to Foxy Brown, hands down.

City lights shine bright on my complexion, Self-reflection...red hairs flashing at the intersection. Life is a green light, one star, no script, Supporting actors...fresh peaches, no pit.

My new shorty got a gymnastic back, '87 emerald green on a classic Jag. She had the cleft palate, I ordered chef's salad; She had the club foot, with that little arm, I couldn't help but laugh...she ordered Chicken Parm.

My TV stays on ESPN all day long, I'm one of those. I don't even listen to music in the car, all I listen to is sports talk.

Linguine linguistics that left my verbal essence saucy, Send a message, leave you sleepin' next to headless horsey.

Because you treat me like shit I paid for the bed and never even slept in it I paid for that crib I never stepped foot in And now somebody else is eating all the pudding.

I'm rap's vigilante. I'm out for justice.

Working in kitchens with Mexicans you always listen to the Spanish channel and that's what I use. Whenever I cook I think of Spanish music, so I always have to listen to some sort of salsa. It gets your body going.

I pick and choose my battles, but I overthink everything because I have to think about everything.

Albanians, we tan well! I don't burn; I bake.

Billy Joel is an incredible musician. He just feels like one of the guys, you know. I grew up listening to his music.

I don't ever have the pressure of making a hit, because I've never had a hit song, per se. The closest thing to a hit song was 'Shiraz,' and it's not your prototypical hit song, with a catchy hook and all this other stuff.

My main influence is Kool G Rap and Cam'ron, pretty much. If you were to mix those two people up, I wish that would be me... This is my voice. I sound like nobody; I sound like me.

I'm into heavy duty, psychedelic, foreign music. That's what I like listening to.

I worked on the line, I've been an executive chef, I've worked for the Mets, I've worked for various steakhouses, vegetarian restaurants, a lot of Middle Eastern stuff. I've worked my fair share of a lot of different things. I've worked at festivals and street fairs, you know? I've been through it all.

I would say I started rapping because my friends were doin' it.

My mother pretty much raised me to be a free spirit. Anything my father would say, she would tell me, 'No, it's like this.'

As far as rap, I was more of a Mobb Deep guy rather than a Tribe guy.

I got a lot of influence from my father, honestly. He'd take me in his car. I'd hear Carlos Santana. I'd hear Queen. I'd hear all these Turkish people, like, bands that he grew up listening to. He was in a band as well.

I still wake up every day and take my kids to school. It's supposed to be this way.

I don't even remember the last time I bought an album, honestly.

You have to be talented. You have to work hard; you have to get the right pieces flowin' for you at the right time. And that's just what happened to me. I can't explain what happened.

I don't put people down. I build people up. That's how I always wanna be looked at.

All I believe in is food and myself.

Shoot eagles on the Jack Nicklaus course, Porsche with the triple exhaust, Seats soft like a midget's cough...

I just do whatever I do, and put it out there without tryin to cater to anybody. If you like it, you like it.

Strictly cop and go's until we laid in the Galapagos Eating tacos, higher than an opera note

I would say I started rapping because my friends were doin it.

I want to do an album with Steven Seagal.

Lamb is such a beautiful thing.

It's an accompaniment to life. It's not something that I do to rap; I smoke when I open my eyes...I don't know any other feeling.

I come from a musical family as well as a culinary family.

I'll always be into sports. Sports is part of my life forever.