First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"It's not called stalking...it's called "passionately following"."
"This business can be very erratic and intense … You can be the subject of great attention, both positive and negative. You really do have to tether yourself when you're a teen star. If you don't have that tether, then you're really lost."
"Anybody who knows how to make a good movie, knows that it's a collaborative undertaking. To deny that its really dangerous."
"I don’t know if people are meant to be together. You have to have a lot in common, choose well and be really fortunate. It’s not like you’re sprinkled with fairy dust. You have to believe that love will be there when you need it."
"People come to see beauty, and I dance to give it to them."
"Dance is bigger than the physical body. When you extend your arm, it doesn't stop at the end of your fingers, because you're dancing bigger than that; you're dancing spirit."
"I have been guilty of watching Westerns without acknowledging that Native Americans have gone through the same madness as African Americans. Isn't it extraordinary that sometimes the most offended have not seen others being offended?"
"I've always felt that complement of opposites: body and soul, solitude and companionship, and in the dance studio, contraction and release, rise and fall."
"I can't really hear the audience applause when I'm on stage. I'm totally immersed in the piece. But sometimes I get a lot of it and wonder, "Now, why did they applaud here?" If it's a white crowd, they usually applaud because they think it's a pretty movement. If it's a black crowd, it's usually because they identify with the message."
"And as the mouthpieceOf every single citizen without peaceDirection and leadershipI'ma spit it 'til your ears can't believe this shitWe got weapons of mass destruction, and we is it"
"I rarely get mentioned in the same category as these other guys who have come out after me...[b]ut maybe I’m not that, maybe I’m not an Internet rapper."
"I wasn’t reluctant about it. I’ve had so many fans online and at shows ask for my old material that I was surprised. So when I had the chance to release my back catalog on iTunes it was really for the fans. I’m still surprised when a fan comes up to me and ask about F.O.O.D. I want to please those fans that have enjoyed my previous albums and I also want to be able to see the progression of my music for posterity sake."
"[Relationships] never seem to work out, I mean it gets to the point where I have to be extremely cautious. You have to understand, this stardom thing is still new to me, I don't even consider myself "famous". It's 2008: if you have a blog, a mixtape and two pairs of skinny jeans you, too, can be 'famous'."
"But she just stood there, scared that I might snapI looked in her eyes and there were years of disappointment starin' right backAnd I was scared too, scared of what she would sayBut I was embarassed like I, like I sat through three Madea playsBefore she walked away, Misery stoppedAnd she said 'look at your music career, you're in the same spotNah,' I said, 'don't even try meBecause you used to stand beside meBut I moved so far ahead you're ninety feet behind me'"
"I, once was retired but he's sort of backHaven't been the same since Uncle L sneezed on a track(Heee-shay!) I'm 'bout to throw some D's on the 'LacSike...my guest appearances is cheese for the ratsPease porridge hot? Nah nigga, pease porridge blackPlease pour a batch of Singaporan tea, more than thatY'all gon' need some bigger cups if you fuckin' with me and NaledgeEven college was a hustle to him, like me at ClaflinWe is laughin' at the competition deviouslySo much accomplished, Wikipedia's peeved"
"Tribe purist to the fullestIf'n you ain't feelin' this track, then you're full of itPull that li'l shit if you wanna, ya digBut you ain't gonna do me like you did those Kidz, and clown meHomage, comma, propsCall it what you want, but I'm not gonna stopRecord hit the store and I'm not gonna flopAnd if I do, well then it's fodder for the message boards tomorrow"
"So one time for my disillusioned artists, I hear yaTwo times for the kid that air-guitars in the mirrorThree times for the 9-to-5-in' bus ridin' dudesAnd four times for my dreamers, yo I'm just like youThat's why I sing for my queens with their own pair of wingsMy brothers flyin' beside me, drama behind meMama tried to find me, she inquired emphaticallyI was in the sky with all these other ghetto kids, defying gravity, uh"
"D. Swain ain't never dwell on shitSo why would he start now?The perfect time for him to depart, vowedTo make a name for myselfGet some fame, maybe gain some wealth (what else?)I gave you the pain of a black man going through thangsJust being myself and showing you SwainNow a nigga feelin' disenchanted, jaded'Cause instead of gettin' props, Danny got hatedYeah I made it to the top, but I'm tossin' myself offD. Swain kill his image? Chalk it up as a lossGoodbye"
"I guess it's true what they say, the third time's a charmI grabbed the game and let it die in my armsThen resurrected itChanged clothes, same flow, perfected itThey know Swain though they still won't respect the kidBut I ain't slowin' upThis time, blowin' upSponsors, concerts, everybody showin' upKnow enough tricks of the trade to get a record deal:Fresh kicks, press kits, sex appealHad to mail my demo out 'cause I ain't had enough bus passTo take the bus first classSo frustrated, had to puff-puff-passSent my CD out to Puff, Puff passedMust've had enough trash on his desk this yearSent one to So So Def, but it fell on so so deaf earsI never once shed tears, this must be a test here"
"Two roads diverged in a wood, I took the one less travelledI'm patient so that's one less hassleIf I dream it, I can live itI've seen the light with vivid imageryI need to write with fits of energyBut it's hard tryin' to get where I'm goin'Without a hint or an omenIt's too late to turn aroundPerseverance, gotta learn it nowBut I'm stubborn howAm I supposed to survive this rollercoaster hurtlin' to the ground?"
"You mad at the last album, I apologize for itYo, I can't call it, man muh'fuckin' Wyclef spoiled it"
"I wish the government would quit tappin' phones in the ghetto(Leave us alone) I wish my student loans were all settledI wish they'd quit riggin' elections, the shit is depressin'Bet your bottom dollar Bush wins again, no questionI wish AIDS didn't existI wish I didn't have flashbacks of my cousin slittin' his wristsI wish there weren't so many single mothers and deadbeat dadsYeah"
"I was a French Quarter rat from the moment I could get on a bus by myself and go to the French Quarter. I played music most of my early life and it just seemed that to entertain people was a really good thing to do."
"I’m very, very private; I don’t enjoy talking about myself to strangers...Particularly strangers with tapes going."
"Don't ask me about Beverly Hills High School. Everybody hated it. I hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Hated it."
"[W]hen I was a kid and I would get upset when people laughed at me when I didn't mean to be funny. I would always hear: 'We're not laughing at you. We're laughing with you.' But I would say, 'I'm not laughing.'"
"I was brought up not to be selfish or self-centered. So if you play somebody who isn't so lovable, you can play that person and no one will turn on you."
"I feel that you reach a certain age and then things start to jell. My sense of self is stronger. I'm getting bolder in my old age. After I hit forty, you couldn't mess around with me so much anymore."
"As an actor you can't approach the character with that kind of awareness or it plays as 'I hate myself.' Dottie thought she had a right to her life and that was tricky to play."
"[W]hat I do is not mimicry or an impersonation, but more of an assimilation"
"All I ever wanted to do was act. And pay my bills"
"I grew up as a tomboy. I was always barefoot, running races with the guys on the block, climbing trees, and beating kids up."
"You'll never get me into a tux. Not until I'm dead and I have no choice because that's what the undertaker put me in."
"We don't wanna leave you, but...but we got to...wish this point right here, wish it could last forever right now! Yeah...it's kinda like one big orgasm!"
"For a while, I was friends with Danny Elfman. He is certainly talented and has done some great music for film. But after talking with him several times when I was having trouble dealing with a movie producer or the agents that we shared, I realized his true genius was dealing with these people."
"It'll say, 'Danny Elfman, who wrote the theme to 'The Simpsons,' etcetera...That's what I'll be remembered for."
"For me, the scariest thing about a serial killer is that there's somebody who lives next door to you, running power tools late into the night, and you don't know he has a refrigerator full of penises."
"He's just scary smart, sort of smarter than everyone else in the room. There's just a handful of these people who know absolutely everything about the process. They could do everyone's job brilliantly. Every aspect is under their control."
"Thank you to the stellar collection of photographers, designers, editors, musicians, costumers, painters, researchers, electricians and craftspeople who without whom I'd just be a bitter man with a lot of opinions"
"I thought it was so strange because I normally make these pitch-black studies of misanthropes or the occasional movie about serial killers, sowhat could the possibly see in this material for me."
"You can either look at your career as the things you're going to leave behind, and they have to be executed flawlessly and you have to know exactly what it is that you're doing. Or you can be realistic about the fact that you're going to learn as you practice what you do."
"Hollywood is great. I also think it's stupid and small-minded and shortsighted. I'm sure there are people who get into movies so they can get nice tables at restaurants."
"You have a responsibility for the way you make the audience feel, and I want them to feel uncomfortable."
"Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine. Some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything's okay. I don't make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything's not okay."
"As much as people pretend 'I fit in, I understand, I get the rules,' there are always times spent away from that where you go, 'I thought I knew. It seemed so clear to me, and then...' That sense of loneliness, or the sense of not fitting in or being out of depth, is probably the most common denominator."
"I want to make a movie that has enough impact that it's going to do what it needs to do. But I don't want to make a film that serial killers masturbate to."
"You can do something that walks a line, and invariably, whatever that line is, it will be crossed by people who don't know any better and want to ape the success."
"I don't have the Tom Hanks fans. When you make the kind of movies I make, you get weird letters from people."
"I tend to over-intellectualize things, to come at them from a structural point."
"You know, I don't think I've ever listened to someone's commentary. Ever."