I don't live for the accolades. I'm more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

Usually I start with a beat, I start making a beat, and my producer side is making the beat. And on a good day, my rapper side will jump in and start the writing process - maybe come up with a hook or start a verse. Sometimes it just happens like that. A song like 'Lights Please' happens like that.

Life is a movie, pick your own role, Climb your own ladder or you dig your own hole.

Touring is very routine. You get to the city, you go to the hotel, you got to be at the hotel by a certain time - it's very routine. I'm not a very structured person, so when I get some structure, it's cool; it's good for me.

If I'm a character, it's a biographical movie. My character is as close to me as possible. As close to being myself as possible. So my character, J. Cole, is very close to Jermaine Cole.

I'm the type of person where, A., I look at things as challenges, I like challenges and, B., I truly believe that you determine your own destiny.

I was a huge Mike Tyson fan growing up; his fights were always on in my house.