Questlove Quotes

Hip-hop is an instant gratification, winners and losers circle, and often those who are losing give up after three or four, five years.

Funk never dies. It is eternal. It just smells a little different from time to time.

I keep moving through time and time keeps moving through me. And through that process, life takes shape. The question is what shape it is. I'm not the first person to ask that question, or to see how absurd it is to think there's a real answer. Maybe life's a circle.

For anyone that's ever had a musical breakthrough in their career, it's always followed by the departure period right after.

I've come to the conclusion that the average person can do about four things a day, like four real things a day.

I do secret stand-up shows around New York. I announce and tweet this to nobody - I get onstage and I do a quick five minutes.

My first gig was at Radio City Music Hall when I was 13.

It's easy for me to say, "Oh yeah, that's the self-saboteur move that most artists pull whenever they're afraid."

My parents were really strict about me not watching cartoons.

I think the music comes first, then comes the fashion, and thus, the lifestyle. I believe it starts with music, and then the person delivering it delivers the lifestyle, the fashion. Madonna is a great example of that.

At the end of the day, I don't release any records that I'm not proud to put my name on. I never got to that point.

I don't believe in good music and bad music anymore. I'm through with that phase of my life. Sometimes I just wanna feel good, so I put on a good record. But mostly I'm more of a businessman than a music fan, so I'm listening to music in terms of, is this effective or not effective?

And even though people like to furrow their brow like they suspect you're not being honest about yourself, the truth is that they worry that you're not serving their idea of you.

Part of me would just like to relax and have one job that pays me the amount I need to survive. And another part of me wants the creativity that comes out of struggle and frustration and fear. It's a never-ending cycle, which must be how I want it, on some level.

There's no such thing as success on an isolated level.

It's a funny word, persistence. It means not giving up, but it also means just passing on through time.

When you first start off, you see what other people have and quietly say, "I want that."

In terms of being a 'sneakerhead,' there was one point where I was obsessively following every sneaker blog. That's the beauty of Twitter: To get the heads up on what's coming out.

After 2001, everyone in the Soulquarians blew up, which wasn't expected. We all got the success, and then everybody froze.

Time will tell. Time is always telling. Time never stops telling.

I have a lot of those 'Forrest Gump,' I-was-there moments.

Just because the laws were changed doesn't mean that the attitudes have changed.

How do you plan a rebirth? I'm not sure you do. You just stand in the darkness until you can't endure it any long, and then you move forward until you're standing in the light.

You can't live off of just greasy fatty foods and stayin' up till six in the mornin' just partyin'. You gotta take care of yourself.

I don't bask in the awards I've won, read my bank statements, I refuse. To me, that's how you start losing the hunger.

I love traveling the States no matter what. I love traveling abroad, going to Japan and Australia. I love it. I never get tired of it.

To be hip-hop is much more than just rapping in the production. It is more in the attitude.