I don't want to be married to any ideology, because life is a lot more fluid than that, and I think that we're trained and conditioned in this country to think in teams.

I write in the booth and memorize in rehearsals.

The best advice that I've gotten from Nas is honestly to just be me and to keep staying true to myself. It took me a long time to figure out how to pop, but then, when you get famous, people are kind of like, 'Oh, well, we don't want as much of you.'

I will never take a day off policing the people we pay and keep a public trust with. I will use my camera, my pen, my pad, and my network to do my part, to make sure that Americans will no longer fear their government. Or its employees. They work for us - not the other way around.

I grew up working class in Atlanta.

I was raised a black child in the South, where you're indoctrinated into a religion that an oppressor gave you.

I think all politics is local.

We have a responsibility to do better as black people in this country. I don't care how white people look at you - I care that we have a one-trillion-dollar spending base, and if you want to see change, you have to start to focus on, economically, how can we change our communities.

My mom had did a wonderful job of giving me two great dads: I had a biological and non-biological dad.

If your great-great-grandfather participated on the Confederate side, and you hold some sentimental value to that, and you want to fly the flag and hang their picture up in your home, that's fine. But it should not be on anything that taxpayers pay for, because taxpayers are a part of the Union, not the Confederacy.

Black people shouldn't have permanent friends or enemies: they should have permanent interest.

Jake 'The Snake' Roberts of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was the darkest! I mean, he could've been a movie villain, he was so intense! He also had the hardest finishing move of all time, the DDT.

I believe in smart people.

In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Senator Bernie Sanders is the right man to lead this country.

I've worked with incredible producers in the past, but when me and El-P got in a room, there was no way I was going to let off his head because not only was he one of the greatest producers I heard, he was one of the illest rappers I had ever heard.

For me, muscle cars are a tribute to American ingenuity.

For the people of Baltimore, I don't criticize rioting, because I understand it. But after the fires die down, organize, strategize, and mobilize.

It's less to do about me - 'Hey, I'm black and it hurts my feelings; it's a symbol of slavery and oppression' - and more to do with the fact that, as an American, I will not honor a group of treacherous traitors. That's why I despise the rebel flag.

Black people need to share collective dollars and demand equal representation, and the way you do that is by controlling their own economy and putting money behind candidates.

We are raising a generation of kids where everyone gets a trophy. But in real life, everyone don't get a trophy.

I've been a music fan all my life, and you know the difference when the musicians care.

People don't accredit Killer Mike and El-P with having the humanity that we do. They don't understand that the darkness and the anger that we rap about comes from a place of love, care, and concern.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a revolutionary, simple and plain.

I believe being honourable lasts longer than rapping good.

America has done a great job making brutally fast, stripped-down cars.

For all my proclivities for thuggery, I am a typical middle-class dad. I'm a gangsta rap suburban father!

We need more Rocafellas; we need more Bad Boys.

What's more American than young people speaking their mind over things they had to create over pots and pans and electronically because music was taken out of schools? What's more American than making something out of nothing? What's more gospel than rap music?

I have matured as a man to understand where my suspicion of women comes from and how that has everything to do with me and nothing to do with them. I have to deal with that.

I like the New York style of funk, the California style of funk, but the South I never felt like - and Atlanta particularly - got the credit for taking their lessons and progressing on it.

I'm happy to be for people what Scarface, Ice Cube, and Rakim have been for me.

I take being an American very seriously.

I've been in the newspapers since I was about 15 - not for rapping, but for real substantive stuff I was doing in the community, organizing around gang violence in the schools. So I had already made my grandma proud before I was on TV. I've always been who I am.

My rights are precious, and I value those provided to me through the United States Constitution so much.

Being in love makes you feel kind of naive.

You can't argue that hip-hop rots away the moral character of kids or rots their brain and still see middle-class white kids going to college who are listening to hip-hop. Going on to become healthy adults listening to hip-hop.

I don't understand how any black person can tell me that they're not pro-gun.

I don't know what the hell the future brings. If I did, I would play the lotto and win the mega millions and buy toy cars, real muscle cars, sneakers, and art.

I'm a Banksy fan. I'm also a fan of Chris Hobe, Mister Totem, Drew Wootten, Mad Clout, Hense and Sever, in visual and street art. And Jonathan Mannion and Shane Nash in photography.

If you don't like the NRA, get a million black people to join. Go to the convention. Realize that this ain't white people in hoods, just regular working class people like you that are probably going to be friendly and engage you. And then add your thoughts to the agenda.

Someone tried to introduce me to Michael Bloomberg, but I declined.

The police are paid by the public and carry a public trust, and they take an oath to protect us as citizens. The police have lost sight of that and must be reminded that we pay them to protect us, not to simply engage and cage us.

It's a totally different spiel when I talk at Morehouse. But when I'm talking at MIT? At the University of Cincinnati? I'm telling white people, in order to stop systemic racism, you must first befriend, become a colleague of, get to know intimately, put yourself culturally in the framework of someone who doesn't look like you.

Atlanta is unique to me. You got poor black people, but I also saw this: I saw black doctors, lawyers, educators. All you gotta do is want to be it to see it, and once you see something, it can be a reality.

I don't want to be walking around angry and feeling rage.

My ears are shot. I'm a musician.

No Child Left Behind left a lot of kids behind.

Rap is supposed to scare soccer moms.

Nas is truly one of the greatest lyricists to ever come out of Queens, which has produced more great MCs than any other borough. He's one of the greatest MCs of my lifetime and in the world. He's also a friend.

You do not fly the flags of losers over the winner's country.