I want to have fun. It's a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up.

I've learned not to be surprised by what people do no more.

Hip hop started in NY so it's important that New Yorkers realise that to talk about NY music and its sound should not be a small-minded conversation. Music is supposed to evolve. It's supposed to be going through changes, it's not supposed to sound exactly the same as what it did when it started. NY hip hop has to be allowed to move on and grow and expand.

I don't want to disappoint - that's a nightmare to me.

No temporary chaos is worth your sanity.

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.

For my hustlers, here's some motivation: He who has begun is half done.