Jay-Z quotes:

I'm hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That's what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that's from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter.

That's why this generation is the least racist generation ever. You see it all the time. Go to any club. People are intermingling, hanging out, having fun, enjoying the same music. Hip-hop is not just in the Bronx anymore. It's worldwide. Everywhere you go, people are listening to hip-hop and partying together. Hip-hop has done that.

I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice - anything just to get a paper bag. And I'd write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.

It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we'd play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.

I collect art, and I drink wine... things that I like that I had never been exposed to. But I never said, 'I'm going to buy art to impress this crowd.' That's just ridiculous to me. I don't live my life like that, because how could you be happy with yourself?

Screamin' 'Carpe Diem!' until I'm a Dead Poet.

My thing is related to who I am as a person. The clothes are an extension of me. The music is an extension of me. All my businesses are part of the culture, so I have to stay true to whatever I'm feeling at the time, whatever direction I'm heading in. And hopefully, everyone follows.

My brands are an extension of me. They're close to me. It's not like running GM, where there's no emotional attachment.

I was forced to be an artist and a CEO from the beginning, so I was forced to be like a businessman because when I was trying to get a record deal, it was so hard to get a record deal on my own that it was either give up or create my own company.

On the night he died - he was twenty-seven - Basquiat had been planning to see a Run-DMC show. When people asked him what his art was about, he'd hit them with the same three words: "Royalty, heroism, and the streets.

You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like 'I still go to the projects.' I'm like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it's so cool?

I couldn't even think about wanting to be something else; I wouldn't let myself visualize another life. But I wrote because I couldn't stop. It was a release, a mental exercise, a way of keeping sane.

The average rap life is two or three albums. You're lucky to get to your second album in rap!

I will not lose, for even in defeat/There's a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me

[T]he truth is that drug addicts have a disease. It only takes a short time in the streets to realize that out-of-control addiction is a medical problem, not a form of recreational or criminal behavior. And the more society treats drug addiction as a crime, the more money drug dealers will make "relieving" the suffering of the addicts.

The burden of poverty isn't just that you don't always have the things you need, it's the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you'd do anything to lift that burden.

Hip-hop gave a generation a common ground that didn't require either race to lose anything; everyone gained.

It was a weird mix of emotions. One day, your best friend could be killed. The day before, you could be celebrating him getting a brand-new bike.

When you're growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you've let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again.

I'd rather die enormous than live dormant.

I use a lot of double meanings. I hide 'em like Easter eggs.

Growing up, politics never trickled down to the areas we come from. But people from Obama's camp, and Obama himself, reached out to me and asked for my help on the campaign. We've sat and had dinner, and we've spoken on the phone. He's a very sharp guy. Very charming. Very cool.

I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. Reid and Universal Music Group have given me the opportunity to manage the companies I have contributed to my whole career. I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community.

Everyone who makes music is a good collaborator at their foundation because in order to make music, you have to connect to it in a way that other people can't.

You can't turn a bad girl good, but once a good girls' gone bad, she's gone forever.

Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing that truth can be a very powerful thing.

I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man!

So many people that I've seen can't get clean water. It's a crime.

I'm far from being god, but I work god damn hard.

I think relationships are broken up because of the media.

People really feel like music is free, but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap and it's good water. But they're okay paying for it. It's just the mindset right now.

What people do in their own homes is their business, and you can choose to love whoever you love. That's their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination, plain and simple

The fans get to see you, and you can do great by your record if you have a great performance or a great night there. That's all part of the business. But at their core, awards shows are not really a sincere thing. For a lot of years, the artists had to pay to play their own set.

I can think of no one more relevant and credible in the hip-hop community to build upon Def Jam's fantastic legacy and move the company into its next groundbreaking era.

I thought I would be more inspired to have all these new feelings to talk about, but I really just want to hang out with my daughter.

Gotta keep it peace like a buddhist Nobody gonna Wesley snipe me It's less than likely, Move back, Let I breathe Jedi knight, The more space I get the better I write, (Oh) Never I write, but, if, ever I write, I need the space to say whatever I like.

Only God can judge me so I'm gone, either love me or leave me alone.

Life is a gift, love opens it up.

As kids we didn't complain about being poor; we talked about how rich we were going to be and made moves to get the lifestyle we aspired to by any means we could. And as soon as we had a little money, we were eager to show it.

Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself.

I really just like breaking down the barriers, whether it means doing an album with Linkin Park, an album with R. Kelly, or playing at the Brandenburg Gate with Bono.

Little brothers ring fingers get cut up to show mothers they really got em.

Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama's running so we all can fly.

Men lie, women lie, numbers dont

They say a midget standing on a giant's shoulders can see much further than the giant. So I got the whole rap world on my shoulders, they trying to see further than I am.

You know the type: loud as a motorbike but wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight.

It's always been most important for me to figure out "my space" rather than trying to check out what everyone else is up to, minute by minute. Technology is making it easier to connect to other people, but maybe harder to keep connected to yourself-- and that's essential for any artist, I think.

You can pay for school, but you can't buy class

No matter where you go, you are what you are playa.

Rap has been a path between cultures in the best tradition of popular music.

Hip-hop has done so much for racial relations, and I don't think it's given the proper credit. It has changed America immensely. I'm going to make a very bold statement: Hip-hop has done more than any leader, politician, or anyone to improve race relations.

Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me?

Well I'm not just gon' go and do rap songs. I wanna touch, and maybe help, and see what I can do in these areas.' As I start looking around me, looking at things in ways that I can become helpful, starting at the first thing, water. Something as simple as water.

You could name practically any problem in the hood and there'd be a rap song for you.

The day Obama got elected, the gangsta became less relevant.

Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who've never done anything because if you haven't been successful, then you don't know how it feels to lose it all.

We change people through conversation, not through censorship.

A poet's mission is to make words do more work than they normally do, to make them work on more than one level.

[T]he truth is you don't need some external demon to take control of you to turn you into a raging, money-obsessed sociopath, you only need to let loose the demons you already have inside of you.

Everything evens up, you just wait, Even a garbage can gets a steak, You ain't even a garbage can, you have faith!

Used to rock a throwback ballin on the corner, now I rock tailored suit lookin' like a owner.

Ain't nothin' wrong with the aim, just gotta change the target.

As fate would have it, Jay's status appears To be at an all-time high, perfect time to say goodbye When I come back like Jordan, wearing the 4-5.

Be true to yourself- and keep things simple. People complicate things

If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be Lyrically, Talib Kweli Truthfully, I wanna rhyme like Common Sense But I did 5 mill' - I ain't been rhyming like Common since.

I love that because that's what I'm supposed to be doing - whether it's accepted b everybody or not. I'm supposed to be pushing that envelope and trying new things. And people are supposed to say, Hov, you might have went too far.

Life is for living, not living uptight, see ya somewhere up in the sky.

I love you so, But why I love you, I'll never know.

Everybody look at you strange, say you changed Like you work that hard to stay the same.

When the TV version of Annie came on, I was drawn to it. It was the struggle of this poor kid in this environment and how her life changed. It immediately resonated.

Wherever I go, I bring the culture with me, so that they can understand that it's attainable. I didn't do it any other way than through hip-hop.

Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth. People respect success. They respect big. They don't even have to like your music. If you're big enough, people are drawn to you.

I grew up in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, and my mom and pop had an extensive record collection, so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.

I've never looked at myself and said that I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people. I've always wanted to stay true to myself, and I've managed to do that. People have to accept that.

One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That's the American ideal. Poor people don't like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank, they don't like to think of themselves as poor.

I'm a mirror. If you're cool with me, I'm cool with you, and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don't like what you see, then you've done something. If I'm standoffish, that's because you are.

It's hilarious a lot of times. You have a conversation with someone, and he's like, 'You speak so well!' I'm like, 'What do you mean? Do you understand that's an insult?

Don't tell me what was said about me. Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it to you.

A wise man told me don't argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can't tell who is who.

Leave a mark they can't erase, neither space nor time.

I look in the mirror, my only opponent

You not feeling me, fine. It costs you nothing, pay me no mind..

Remind your self. Nobody constructed like you, you style your self.

I seen the worst of the worst. I deserve every blessing I receive I'm from the dirt.

Don't ever go with the flow. Be the flow.

Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow.

Everybody can tell you how to do it but they never done it

I'm hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter.

You can put a new shirt on your back, slide a fresh chain around your neck, and accumulate all the money and power in the world, but at the end of the day those are just layers. Money and power don't change you, they just further expose your true self.

Niggas pray and pray on my downfall, But every time I hit the ground I bounce up like round ball

The genius thing that we did was, we didn't give up.

Males shouldnt be jealous. Thats a female trait.

May the best of your today's be the worst of your tomorrow's

When you step outside of school and have to teach yourself about life, you develop a different relationship to information. I've never been a purely linear thinker. You can see it in my rhymes. My mind is always jumping around, restless, making connections, mixing and matching ideas, rather than marching in a straight line. That's why I'm always stressing focus. My thoughts chase each other from room to room in my head if I let them, so sometimes I have to slow myself down.

Their gunnin' for me, want to see me fall, you know my story, been through it all, times I felt like dyin', but I ain't cryin', what didn't kill me, makes me strong as iron.

Only he without sin can tell me if my means justify my ends.

Without the work, the magic won't come.

Nine to five is how ya survive, I ain't trying to survive I'm trying to live it to the limit and love it alive

I got mouths to feed til they put flowers on me.

In trouble waters I had to learn how to float

You learn more in failure than you ever do in success

You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can't falter. You can't slip. You can't sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.

No one's walking around here perfect. Everyone's gonna make mistakes. That's part of how you learn.

just when i thought i had everything, i lost it all

I never ask for nothin' I don't demand of myself. Honesty, loyalty, friends and then wealth

I believe excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over.

I'm not afraid of dying I'm afraid of not trying

New York has a thousand universes in it that don't always connect but we do all walk the same streets, hear the same sirens, ride the same subways, see the same headlines in the Post, read the same writings on the walls. That shared landscape gets inside of all of us and, in some small way, unites us, makes us think we know each other even when we don't.

Boxing is a glorious sport to watch and boxers are incredible, heroic athletes, but it's also, to be honest, a stupid game to play. Even the winners can end up with crippling brain damage. In a lot of ways, hustling is the same. But you learn something special from playing the most difficult games, the games where winning is close to impossible and losing is catastrophic: You learn how to compete as if your life depended on it. That's the lesson I brought with me to the so-called "legitimate" world.

We'll have a baby who stutters repeatedly We'll name him history

I keep my enemies close/ I give 'em enough rope/ They put themselves in the air/ I just kick away the chair.

I believe you can speak things into existence.

Be fluid. Treat each project differently. Be water, man. The best style is no style. Because styles can be figured out. And when you have no style they can't figure you out.

I'm a hustler, baby; I sell water to a well!

I'm trying to tell the story in the most clear, concise, and truthful way, taking those everyday words and phrases and capturing them in a way that they become something else.

I ain't lookin' at you dudes -I'm lookin' past you.

Treat my first like my last and the last like my first and my thirst is the same as- when I came.

I spring train in the winter, around early December...

Now success was like lust, she's good to the touch, She's good for the moment, but she's never enough

I jack, I rob, I sin. Aw man, I'm Jackie Robinson 'Cept when I run base, I dodge the pen