Jay-Z Quotes

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I'm a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?

You ain't gotta go to church to find your God.

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

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

[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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I look in the mirror, my only opponent

I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars...

[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.

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.

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.

When I come back like Jordan, wearing the 4-5. It ain't to play games with you, it's to aim at you, probably maim you. If I owe you I'm blowin' you to smithereens.

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

All these ways we classify things as R&B and hip-hop and rock... It's bullshit. It's all music. If you put yourself in that box, then you won't be able to hear that it's all music at its soul.

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.

And now we're lethal, infected with D'Evils