Artist Quotes

50 David Byrne Quotes That Truly Inspire

Published

1 year ago

Apr 7, 2023

Which are your favorite David Byrne quotes?

David Byrne is a Scottish-American musician, actor, filmmaker, and writer. He is best known for being a founding member of the renowned American new wave band, the ‘Talking Heads’.

Along with his fellow bandmates, his group became one of the most critically acclaimed bands in the 1980s and got inducted into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’.

Byrne has also ventured into the film industry. He has successfully written, directed, and also starred in the movie ‘True Stories’ and made several appearances in the widely celebrated reality TV show ‘Saturday Night Live’.

Throughout his career in the entertainment industry, Byrne has received many prestigious awards such as the ‘Grammy Award’ and ‘Golden Globe Award’.

Here’s a collection of the most inspirational David Byrne quotes:

Table of Contents

50 David Byrne Quotes That Truly Inspire

1. “I found music to be the therapy of choice.” – David Byrne

2. “You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.” – David Byrne

3. “PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way. Who knows.” – David Byrne

4. “Sometimes it’s a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.” – David Byrne

5. “Sometimes the European and North American public like some things to be exotic and kept at arm’s length. They don’t want sometimes to know that foreign artists are doing something that’s at least as relevant as what’s being done here.” – David Byrne

6. “It seemed [there are] musical nodes on the planet where cultures meet and mix, sometimes as a result of unfortunate circumstances, like slavery or something else, in places like New Orleans and Havana and Brazil. And those are places where the European culture and indigenous culture and African culture all met and lived together, and some new kind of culture and especially music came out of that.” – David Byrne

7. “There are a lot of people that don’t scour websites regularly or read music reviews. They need whatever, the other kinds of stuff, whether it’s an appearance on Letterman or posters or ads. They need to kind of be hit more in the face and be told that there’s something new out there.” – David Byrne

8. “Do I wear a helmet? Ugh. I do when I’m riding through a precarious part of town, meaning Midtown traffic. But when I’m riding on securely protected lanes or on the paths that run along the Hudson or through Central Park – no, I don’t wear the dreaded helmet then.” – David Byrne

9. “The very best [infographics] engender and facilitate an insight by visual means — allow us to grasp some relationship quickly and easily that otherwise would take many pages and illustrations and tables to convey. Insight seems to happen most often when data sets are crossed in the design of the piece — when we can quickly see the effects on something over time, for example, or view how factors like income, race, geography, or diet might affect other data. When that happens, there’s an instant “Aha!”…” – David Byrne

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10. “I’m being probably naïve, but I would like to think that once something moves you and you have an emotional involvement with it, and you see some relevance in it to your own life, then it’s a little bit harder, maybe, to look at the people that produced it as being just exotic others that don’t have any connection to you or relevance to you.” – David Byrne

11. “As music becomes less of a thing–a cylinder, a cassette, a disc–and more ephemeral, perhaps we will begin to assign an increasing value to live performances again.” – David Byrne

12. “I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.” – David Byrne

13. “By the time Talking Heads were starting, my feeling was to throw out everything and start from scratch on stage; strip it down to as close to zero as you can get, and then you can make it yours.” – David Byrne

14. “So there’s no guarantee if you like the music you will empathize with the culture and the people who made it. It doesn’t necessarily happen. I think it can, but it doesn’t necessarily happen. Which is kind of a shame.” – David Byrne

15. “Creative work is more accurately a machine that digs down and finds stuff, emotional stuff that will someday be the raw material that can be used to produce more stuff, stuff like itself – clay to be available for future use.” – David Byrne

16. “There’s still a feeling that uncensored emotions make a good song. They don’t. Pure emotion is just somebody screaming at you, or crying. It doesn’t communicate anything.” – David Byrne

17. “Cycling is a joy and faster than many other modes of transport, depending on the time of day. It clears the head.” – David Byrne

18. “Software constraints are only confining if you use them for what they’re intended to be used for.” – David Byrne

19. “Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what makes them create.” – David Byrne

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20. “I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don’t notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is.” – David Byrne

21. “There are plenty of people who are, I think, completely racist who love hip-hop.” – David Byrne

22. “I wanted to be a secret agent and an astronaut, preferably at the same time.” – David Byrne

23. “I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.” – David Byrne

24. “I’m just an advertisement for a version of myself.” – David Byrne

25. “The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?” – David Byrne

26. “To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that.” – David Byrne

27. “I don’t care how impossible it seems.” – David Byrne

28. “Some things, I feel like no, I never could have the depth of experience of their own music and culture – but sometimes if I’m collaborating with somebody, they’re interested in me bringing my own stuff into their thing, and sometimes that works.” – David Byrne

29. “There’s a great temptation to clean everything up and make everything more perfect. You have to know when to stop and stop doing it, or you might end up with something that sounds metronomic.” – David Byrne

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30. “I like a good story and I also like staring at the sea– do I have to choose between the two?” – David Byrne

31. “I try to devote my afternoons to making music in my home studio, but it’s a lot more fun hanging out with musicians and friends and trying subtly to influence a band than making your own stuff.” – David Byrne

32. “I think sometimes I get carried away like I’m speaking to an imaginary audience rather than just trying to figure something out for myself. Ideally, I try to balance that – that I’m asking these questions of myself, how does this work, why does this happen, what’s going on here.” – David Byrne

33. “With music, you often don’t have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don’t know why.” – David Byrne

34. “Music is relegated to an underground, relatively obscure group of listeners. It’s partly because of the nature of the medium. With a piece of visual art, you can look at something ugly, brutal, and in your face, but it’s kind of – there it is. It doesn’t take you over in the same way that putting on the music at a certain volume does.” – David Byrne

35. “A lot of that worked itself out in the recording.” – David Byrne

36. “I’m really curious how the private listening – iPods, people listening on their phones – how that might eventually affect music. There’ll be a whole genre of music that really works on a kind of one to one headphone or earbud level but doesn’t really work when you play it in a room.” – David Byrne

37. “People in Latin America… love America from afar and emulate America in some ways but also hate a lot of things that America does to them.” – David Byrne

38. “I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.” – David Byrne

39. “There’s more good music being made now than ever before.” – David Byrne

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40. “I’d been keeping tour diaries, and especially when I go somewhere where I felt the experience might be interesting, like Eastern Europe or South America or whatever, where the whole perception of what I was doing there and stuff that I was seeing and music I was hearing, I could put all that into a diary.” – David Byrne

41. “I try to write about small things. Paper, animals, a house…love is kind of big. I have written a love song, though. In this film, I sing it to a lamp.” – David Byrne

42. “There’s a pervasive feeling that when somebody sings a song and records a song on a record, that it’s their true feeling.” – David Byrne

43. “People are renovating places and opening ambitious new venues. That’s one thing that music does. It gets people out of their houses, and gets them hanging out together.” – David Byrne

44. “My favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food.” – David Byrne

45. “Everything’s intentional. It’s just filling in the dots.” – David Byrne

46. “The most common music that you hear anywhere in the world now basically has its roots in that union that happened in the last century, or in the century before that. That kind of music that’s a groove or beat-oriented just didn’t exist in lots of cultures before that.” – David Byrne

47. “My opinion is that somebody certainly has the right to do cartoons that make fun of somebody else’s religion. But to reprint them just to provoke a fight and just to provoke it like thumbing your nose at someone else and going, “What are you gonna do about it?” – David Byrne

48. “I’ve rarely seen video screens used well in a music concert.” – David Byrne

49. “Suburban houses and tin sheds are often the objects of ridicule.” – David Byrne

50. “Sometimes I write stuff that strangely predicts what’s going to happen in my life.” – David Byrne

Summary

Thanks for checking out this collection of quotes from David Byrne! Don’t forget to share them on social media with your friends and family.

Which are your favorite David Byrne quotes? Leave a comment below.

Artist Quotes

52 Inspirational J Cole Quotes & Lyrics

Published

10 months ago

Jun 19, 2023

Dan Western

Jermaine Cole is an American hip hop artist, who started receiving recognition and fame for his work back in 2007.

Some of his lyrics have been highly regarded as creative yet truthful rhymes, which in a lot of cases means they’re very inspiring to many individuals.

We’ve created this collection of the greatest J Cole quotes & lyrics of all time:

Table of Contents

52 Inspirational J Cole Quotes

1. “To appreciate the sun, you gotta know what rain is.” – J Cole

2. “Anything’s possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles.” – J Cole

3. “Take a chance, because you never know how perfect something can turn out.” – J Cole

4. “I’d rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else.” – J Cole

5. “People congratulate me. I just tell them God is good.” – J Cole

6. “Keep grinding boy, your life can change in one year, and even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere.” – J Cole

7. “Damn, cold world. I never thought I’d see the day that you’re my old girl.” – J Cole

8. “You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life’s lessons are learned in pain.” – J Cole

9. “I swear I walk with God, but the devil keeps following.” – J Cole

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10. “If they don’t know your dreams, they can’t shoot them down.” – J Cole

11. “My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated, that means my tables turn.” – J Cole

12. “Am I about dollars or about change? Am I about knowledge or brains? Freedom or big chains? They don’t feel my pain.” – J Cole

13. “Get to know somebody and you really learn a lot about ‘em. Won’t be long before you start to doubt ‘em. Tell yourself you better off without ‘em. Then in time you will find can’t walk without ‘em.” – J Cole

14. “No such thing as a life that’s better than yours, no such thing–no such thing…” – J Cole

15. “In a game full of liars it turns out that I’m the truth. Some say that rap’s alive. It turns out that I’m the proof.” – J Cole

16. “Nothing lasts forever, but at least we’ve got these memories.” – J Cole

17. “Never give up until you’ve given out all your very best. It’s better to fail trying, than wondering what could have happened if you tried.” – J Cole

18. “It’s beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success.” – J Cole

19. “If you place your importance on appreciation and love, that’s enough.” – J Cole

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20. “Sometimes our dreams come true, sometimes our fears do too.” – J Cole

21. “For a few minutes you made me feel as if I actually meant something to someone.” – J Cole

22. “There’s a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. So, think about that before you judge someone.” – J Cole

23. “Anything I do, I do it well.” – J Cole

24. “You can lose all the money, but you’ll never lose people knowing you.” – J Cole

25. “Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.” – J Cole

26. “So here we are… it’s funny how so close can seem so far.” – J Cole

27. “We got dreams and we got the right to chase ‘em.” – J Cole

28. “Promise to my momma I’mma make it to the top, so I’mma keep climbing ‘til my heartbeat drop.” – J Cole

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29. “Either you play the game or you let the game play you.” – J Cole

30. “I’mma be here for a while. None of these clowns can hurt me.” – J Cole

31. “I put a lot of God in my music, but not because I’m super religious. There are a lot of demons in my music too. I acknowledge both.” – J Cole

32. “They say time is money but really, it’s not. If we ever go broke, time is all we got.” – J Cole

33. “I walk along this long harbor of life and sit on the piers, reflect on my pain and sh*t on my fears.” – J Cole

34. “I keep my head high, I got my wings to carry me. I don’t know freedom, I want my dreams to rescue me.” – J Cole

35. “A little jealousy in a relationship is healthy. It’s always nice to know someone is afraid to lose you.” – J Cole

36. “Tupac was just so passionate about what he believes in and not afraid to say anything.” – J Cole

37. “The music becomes more pure and soulful when it’s true, and it has to be true these days with the way the internet works, and the way the game works, everyone wants authentic raps.” – J Cole

38. “I met Will Smith twice. I didn’t talk to him for too long but I was trying to let him know that my age group grew up watching him – he was the coolest guy on television and the coolest guy in movies.” – J Cole

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39. “I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.” – J Cole

40. “When I was in college my girl got me a job at the doctor’s office she was working at. I was a file clerk. No disrespect but I don’t think a man can do that job. It takes so much meticulous and precise file-keeping.” – J Cole

41. “I want people to follow their dreams, yes… but I’m not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers… I want to show them that there’s so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.” – J Cole

42. “In this life ain’t no happy endings. Only pure beginnings followed by years of sinning and fake repentance.” – J Cole

43. “People think because I’ve got some success, I’ve made it, but in my eyes it’s like, ‘How long has Jay Z been in the business? How many albums has he got?’ Not that I’m trying to be Jay Z, but I am trying to be around for a long time.” – J Cole

44. “I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.” – J Cole

45. “You can’t reverse fame. You can lose all the money, but you’ll never lose people knowing you.” – J Cole

46. “College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.” – J Cole

47. “It’s no coincidence that all the greatest rappers – whoever you put in your top five – I guarantee you they are great storytellers.” – J Cole

48. “When you’re a rapper, just a rapper, you have to kind of settle for whatever comes your way – if a beat is hot, you wanna rap on it, period.” – J Cole

49. “Keep grindin’ boy, your life can change in one year, And even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere.” – J Cole

50. “Hard to move on when you always regret one.” – J Cole

51. “I’m a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that’s never healthy.” – J Cole

52. “Life is a movie, pick your own role, Climb your own ladder or you dig your own hole.” – J Cole

Summary

Thanks for checking out this collection of quotes from J Cole! Don’t forget to share them on social media.

Which are your favorite J Cole quotes? Leave a comment below.

Artist Quotes

30 Awesome Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) Quotes

Published

10 months ago

Jun 19, 2023

Dan Western

MGK, another insane source of inspiration for hip hop fans;

It wasn’t until last year that I started listing to Machine Gun Kelly’s music, but I’ve become a big fan. Some of his lyrics are incredibly motivational for underdogs in live, the ones who are struggling, and need that little bit of strength to go on.

So I’ve had a look and a listen, and compiled some of the best MGK quotes from his own lyrics. These are some of the most inspirational things he’s said, so take a look and enjoy.

Feel free to share the list using the social buttons above if you know anyone else who is a big MGK fan.

Table of Contents

25 Awesome MGK Quotes

1. “Don’t ever look down, be comfortable with who you are, our flaws are what make us perfect.” – MGK

2. “You can’t see my tears in the rain, underneath it all we’re just the same.” – MGK

3. “I owe my life to my own advice, follow your motherf****n’ dreams until those visions come to life.” – MGK

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4. “Whatever you love could be taken away, so live like it’s your dying day.” – MGK

5. “Toast to the underdog, toast to the team, toast to the fact we this close to the dream.” – MGK

6. “Life is too short to live the same day twice. So each new day make sure you live your life.” – MGK

7. “I’m walking through the fire because there is no way around.” – MGK

8. “I don’t think that a lot of people understand, that the person who’s crazy enough to think he can change the world, actually can.” – MGK

9. “What is love, love is pain. Love is butterflies and stomach aches, love is looking out a windowpane. Tears dripping looking like you’re in the rain, for somebody you don’t even know, but somebody you may never see again.” – MGK

10. “I used to take orders, now I make bets. I used to scrub floors, now I sign checks. And I used to push carts, now I push songs. I used to be there, now I am so gone.” – MGK

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11. “When my times up on this earth and they bury me in that dirt, don’t say that I ain’t milk this life for everything that it’s worth.” – MGK

12. “I came out of a dying city, brought back life. Everything they said I couldn’t do I did about twice.” – MGK

13. “Yeah, and they told me all that glitters ain’t gold. But I really wanna shine right now. And they told me the sky’s the limit so I wonder if I can fly right now. Yeah, so I spread my wings, jumped up, and lived my dreams.” – MGK

14. “And if you ever have a dream, don’t be scared to chase that shit, man. You can have whatever you want in this life. Don’t let anyone tell you different.” – MGK

15. “Heroes are remembered. Legends never die. I ain’t dyin’ any time soon.” – MGK

16. “I used to have someone at 3AM that I could call. Now it just rings and I don’t get nothing at all.” – MGK

17. “Trust is like an eraser. It gets smaller with every mistake.” – MGK

18. “As my world turns, the heart beats, not only in my chest, but the heart of the streets.” – MGK

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19. “I had a dream that the world changed, and for a minute there was no pain.” – MGK

20. “Never make permanent decisions on temporary feelings.” – MGK

21. “I dedicate this to my teachers that never believed in me, and the mother that conceived but ended up leaving me.” – MGK

22. I love you, and you may not see right now. But I’m beggin’ for forgiveness, I’m on my knees right now.” – MGK

23. Question, what if tomorrow never comes and everything you said couldn’t be undone?” – MGK

24. “If you ain’t living your life then you’re dead, and sleep is its cousin so I shot my bed.” – MGK

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25. “Follow in my steps, then you walkin’ a green mile. Trees in my pockets, like my denim’s a greenhouse.” – MGK

26. “I made a dollar out of cents, got a whole nation’s respect before I was 18. And I did that without a check. See, I used to be a lame. Now, I’m posted in the game, in a top spot, tough drop. Money ain’t a thing.” – MGK

27. “People want to be my friend. But where the f*** were y’all when I was ten, eleven or twelve getting bullied and beat up in the gym? I couldn’t never get a girl. Now, all the sudden I’m the man. Students try to get back cool with me again. F*** ’em all!” – MGK

28. “I wanna get that dream and live my life, with no Rihanna, no T.I. I’m just living for today, no tomorrow, no pause, no comma, real shit, no persona. I’m enjoying every pussy like a virgin or Madonna.” – MGK

29. “Hold up, let me put my cool back on. Wouldn’t be here without my team. I put my crew back on. And I’m a rapper but I will not put the jewels back on. My fans love Kells, let me put the fool back on.” – MGK

30. “If you ever thought that you won’t make it, soon as it get hard you just can’t take it- no matter what you going through, keep waiting ’cause you gon’ make it. You gon’ make it.” – MGK

Bonus: MGK Picture Quote

Summary

If these quotes weren’t quite the sort of hip-hop quotes you were looking for, then how about checking out quotes from Eminem?

Are there any MGK quotes in this article that stand out to you? Leave a comment below.

Artist Quotes

22 Golden Lupe Fiasco Quotes From His Lyrics

Published

10 months ago

Jun 19, 2023

Dan Western

Lupe Fiasco is an American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur;

We put together this collection of Lupe Fiasco quotes solely contained within his lyrics. Some of these quotes are absolutely golden!

Here are 22 of the best Lupe Fiasco quotes:

Table of Contents

22 Golden Lupe Fiasco Quotes

1. “If talk is cheap, then my silence is diamonds.” – Lupe Fiasco

2. “Love always shines, that’s how I’ll find you. In case you forgot, I hope this reminds you.” – Lupe Fiasco

3. “We can’t do nothing about the past, but we can do something about the future that we have.” – Lupe Fiasco

4. “I wish I couldn’t feel. I wish I couldn’t love. I wish I could stop loving you so much.” – Lupe Fiasco

5. “You would never know if you could ever be, if you never try, you would never see.” – Lupe Fiasco

6. “I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence. Fear is such a weak emotion, that’s why I despise it.” – Lupe Fiasco

7. “Self-respect first. Sexy second.” – Lupe Fiasco

8. “The truth is limitless in its range. If you drop a ‘T’ and look at it in reverse it could hurt.” – Lupe Fiasco

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“Life ain’t made to come around twice, that’s why I gotta get it right.” – Lupe Fiasco

10. “Fear is such a weak emotion, that’s why I despise it.” – Lupe Fiasco

11. “I’m just trying to do the opposite of left, as long as there’s the opposite of death, ya know. Yes, ya test and I just might bring the opposite of life, ’till there’s no one the opposite of right.” – Lupe Fiasco

12. “Things are getting out of control, feel like I’m running out of soul. You are getting too heavy to hold, think I’ll be letting you go.” – Lupe Fiasco

13. “My greatest enemy at one point was myself, and so now once I gt over the fear of myself I don’t fear any man. I never have.” – Lupe Fiasco

14. “That should be the measure of success for everyone. It’s not money, it’s not fame, it’s not celebrity; my index of success is happiness.” – Lupe Fiasco

15. “What starts in clouded minds finished in the rain.” – Lupe Fiasco

16. “But it was good while it lasted, but when it’s dead, put it in a casket.” – Lupe Fiasco

17. “I find it somewhat liberating to jump, to dive into things that are the opposite of me.” – Lupe Fiasco

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“Never stop doing your best just because someone doesn’t give you credit.” – Lupe Fiasco

19. “People don’t understand that where I come from, everyone is either a convict, been in jail, been in a gang, is a hooligan of some sorts. But those are my brothers, my family and the people I travel with. Those are the people that I roll with.” – Lupe Fiasco

20. “Why kill you when I can just not teach you and get the same results.” – Lupe Fiasco

21. “Holy apartments in the gardens in which the rivers flow. Thank you for all your blessings and all of your miracles.” – Lupe Fiasco

22. “How can land be owned by another man? Warns one can not steal what was given as a gift. Is the sky owned by birds and the river owned by fish?” – Lupe Fiasco

23. “When you start creating opinion, and you start creating difference of opinion, you’re doing something. People are actually sitting down and critiquing. A lot of the stuff people hate, they really don’t. They only look at the outer shell. They don’t really get into it.” – Lupe Fiasco

24. “I do this for the sake of myself. It’s a selfish process. I don’t really have any expectations from anyone for your comments or your reviews or your previews.” – Lupe Fiasco

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25. “I trust people to be human. Sometimes you do things that make amazing amounts of sense; sometimes you do things that don’t make any sense whatsoever.” – Lupe Fiasco

26. “Everybody has their opinion on what’s ‘real,’ and what’s they choose to listen to and their personal preference. Whether they’re 2 years old or 200 years old. And people can listen to whatever they want.” – Lupe Fiasco

27. “You expect certain things. You build up in your mind how it’s supposed to go down. When you get a record deal, you think you’re supposed to get X, Y, and Z. It doesn’t happen like that. You’re like ‘Oh, this isn’t as exciting as I thought it was going to be.'” – Lupe Fiasco

28. “The only person who really impressed me with making new music is Cudi. Everyone else seems to be jumping on the same music, the producer-made stuff, but the one person that’s made new music to me is Cudi.” – Lupe Fiasco

29. “Never apologize for being real… reality is the enemy of fakes, frauds, liars and protectors of ignorance. It scares them.” – Lupe Fiasco

30. “I find it somewhat liberating to jump, to dive into things that are the opposite of me.” – Lupe Fiasco