I now possess the tools as a producer and a songwriter to really just go out and make smashes all day long. I could make an album full of smash records that got pop appeal. But my heart is in hip-hop. My heart is in telling stories. And it's like therapy for me.

I just feel like, with rappers, there's so much complacency. It's like, 'Oh, I'm a rapper. I'm successful. I make money. That's all that matters.' But there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you're aware of it, it's happening.

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.

When composing music, I just start spilling things out and then wait until they take form, you know what I mean, until I see like a common thread or something.

Marriage is just a relationship to me. In my experience, when you've been in a relationship for as long as I've been in one, there's no real difference. It's just a piece of paper that validates what was already real.

I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.

I'm half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That's why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I've seen so many.