All we sell is the Greatest feeling on Earth

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

Switching off perfection switched on the human quality

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

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

Music has the power to stop time. But music also keeps time.

The only mofos in my circle are people that I can learn from.

My parents were really strict about me not watching cartoons.

Meaninglessness takes hold because meaninglessness is addictive.

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

We have to get back to "we." It's important to get back to "we" not just "I."

Working with the artist elite can be like banging your head against the wall.

When you live your life through records, the records are a record of your life.

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

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

You know the greatest thing about working on 'Fallon?' I get so many anonymous gifts.

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

I hate holidays because it's the quietest; it's the most deafening sound in my apartment.

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

I think all of this—The Roots and DJing included—was meant to prepare me for The Tonight Show.

I never want to get to that level of poverty where taking a bath has to be a hot-pot experience.

I want to be as healthy as I can be so I can make it past 50; make it past 60 and make it past 70.

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

Jay-Z is a dude that can give you a hundred 'Simpsons' quotes, like, 'What you know about the monorail?'

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

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

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 bask in the awards I've won, read my bank statements, I refuse. To me, that's how you start losing the hunger.

It's funny, I can see the science in how music is made with other artists, but it's hard for me to dissect my own thing.

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

Kurt Cobain represents a very legit, realistic outlook. Before that, in my head, to be a white artist was to be privileged.

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

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.

I feel like the downfall of any person is the second an artist starts celebrating their work themselves, that becomes problematic.

In the 2000s, I became an artist. I started preserving and educating. I became more obsessed with making iPod playlists for people.

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 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.

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

Hip-hop is so much about character and caricature that people just see you as a character. Very rarely are you flesh and bone to people.

Classical music requires an immense amount of concentration, and I don't know if I would've been that committed to that particular life.

Hip-hop is such a disposable art form from a business standpoint. It never treats its artists as art; it never treats its product as art.

I don't have friends, and it's hard for me to make new friends. Right now, the people that are in my life are the people that I work with.

I want the 'Roots' biopic to be animated - I see Charles Schulz drawing us. I think it would be more hilarious with the voices of children.

I hate videos. I'm meticulous on everything from cover art, fonts, productions, mixing. But when it comes to videos, I just feel so defeated.

During the 2008 election, I made clear to the Obama campaign that I don't think it's wise for me to force my personal political agenda on anyone.

I don't think crack happened by accident. I'm part conspiracy theorist, because you can't develop something that dangerous and have it not be planned.

Half the time, my job is basically to talk people off the ledge. It's more psychological than just me picking up some sticks and counting, "1, 2, 3, 4."

I cannot keep a girlfriend longer than seven months. I have 12 jobs. I don't have time for my personal life. I'm fully aware that this is the sacrifice.

The Chronic represented everything that I hated about hip-hop as a fan, but then later represented everything that I stood for as a musician and engineer.

I do count on a changing of tides. All too often, what could be a critics' darling today becomes tomorrow's target. I don't want to be too blasé about it.

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