When I made Illmatic, I was trying to make the perfect album. It comes from the days of Wild Style. I was trying to make you experience my life. I wanted you to look at hip-hop differently. I wanted you to feel that hip-hop was changing and becoming something more real.

I sip the Dom P watching Gandhi til I'm charged - writing in my book of rhymes, all the words past the margin

Always observe, watch, and talk to older people.

If you scared to take chances, you'll never have the answers...

New York city is full of great spaces. The best spaces of the world are here. This is the new Europe, where the settlers came and busted out their ideas and put it down so there's nothing but great space in this great city.

"Never stop. Never settle." I believe in this message.

Today, with the media, the internet, things get out there about anybody, anytime, so there's nothing wrong about talking about your life, because someone else is going to talk about it and mess it up.