Quotes

We're from the projects - East L.A. On welfare the majority of our lives. A lot of my friends are dead and in prison, just like any urban person that comes from areas like I'm from. But my grandma was super-grandma. Ain't nobody mess with our family in my neighborhood because everybody loved my grandma. She was the one that prayed for everybody. We were one of the first families in the projects. And I moved them out. Music allowed me.

You want to play stadiums? You listen to U2. You study it for harmonics, the vocal placement, the freaking chord progressions, their lyrics. You study the production. You study it because studying that equals stadiums.

I'm good at thinking outside the box, so much that you realize it's not a box to begin with.

I was born and raised in the ghetto, on welfare, two minutes from homeless.

I just like seeing kids inspired.

There's only one type of music and that's good music, no matter what genre it is.

When you follow your heart, you're never supposed to do things because of what you think people might say. You do it for the opposite reasons.

Philanthropy is the thing that I am really excited about, and having success means I can do more.

You can rule ignorance; you can manipulate the illiterate; you can do whatever you want when a people are uneducated, so that goes in line with corrupt business and corrupt politics.

If you are a chef, no matter how good a chef you are, it's not good cooking for yourself; the joy is in cooking for others - it's the same with music.

There are five issues that make a fist of a hand that can knock America out cold. They're lack of jobs, obesity, diabetes, homelessness, and lack of good education.

It should be mandatory that you understand computer science.

When someone is denying what they are, then that's when things start to spiral down.

Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex and the damage it could do to society.

I don't follow waves or trends or emotions.

Not many people give you a vision of what the future will bring.

I know people in gangs; I could have went down that route.

If my mind's not trying to fix something or create something, I don't know what to do. It just throws me off.

I don't want to hope anymore. I don't think we should hope anymore. We hoped enough. Now we have to do. We all have to do now.

Most of these people who are celebrities now don't do anything to deserve it, so by that fact alone, I don't want to be one.

Disco is the first technology music. And what I mean is that 'disco' music is named after discs, because when technology grew to where they didn't need a band in the clubs, the DJ played it on a disc.

I go out partying to figure out exactly who I'm making music for. You can't just guess.

The computer allows me to execute my ideas at the speed I think them.

There's no chivalry in culture any more. Sometimes you meet someone who everyone says is polite and you're like, 'Wow,' but then it's like, 'Hang on, isn't everyone supposed to be polite?'

If you really want change, you really want it to be inclusive, where everyone's included, otherwise you're just going to have more of the same in the future.

If I didn't mould my reality then I'd still be in the ghetto where people like me are supposed to stay. You have to dream your way out of the nightmare.

Most kids are not dreaming of being programmers, scientists or engineers.

If Apple's a technology company in the music industry, why can't somebody in the music industry make technology?

How about no one's ever going to outsell Michael Jackson at selling records because the record industry is over. Game over. There's no more record stores. With no more record stores there's no more pressing plants. With no more pressing plants, there's no more charts.

Now that Obama's president, it changes inner-city youths. They can now not just dream to be Lil Waynes and 50 Cents, but they can now dream to be Obamas.

Music is my therapy and my straitjacket. Music keeps me sane and keeps my mind on something. It's fragile up there.

I'm fascinated with quantum physics.

If you live in a ghetto and really want not to just change your life and your family's life but change your ghetto's life, make your ghetto a good neighborhood, learn science; try to be like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

I like all the families in the U.K. But what I like about the idea of the royal family is... they seem like they're well educated and there's something admirable about them. And the Queen... she reminds me of my grandma.

If you live in a good neighborhood, you drive home and there's a bank. There's grocery stores and big houses - but no motels. What that tells you psychologically is you protect your money and buy good things for your family to eat in your nice big house.

I can't be quiet, as that's when I notice the ringing in my ears.

Hip-hop culture is probably one of the most powerful things to come out of America in a long time - everything from the music to the art to the dance to the language.

I don't have political agendas. I have social agendas.

If countries were people, England and France would be old men. Italy would be dead. Compared with them, America is in its 20s.

Code writers, they are my idols.

When you think about the guys who started Twitter, and the Google guys, and the Facebook guys and the Napster guys, and the Microsoft guys, and the Dell guys and the Instagram guys, it's all guys. The girls, they're being left behind.

We need to forge a whole new energy and American Dream.

If you know how to freestyle, you will never have writer's block.

You know, the Super Bowl is so fresh that every single commercial is even on, you know, some next-level entertainment.

You can get your money and you put it in the bank, or you can put it in the youth. You can put it in our future.

When you're a corporation, you're going to stick with what works. That's why every McDonald's is the same.

I was born and raised in East Los Angeles by a single mom who had three biological kids and adopted four more. I never met my dad.

Crime and violence are the easiest emotions to reenact.

Traveling in Europe made me understand that America has an island mentality: No one exists except us. There's a whole other world out there, but most Americans - all they know is America, the marketing plan.

I don't need anyone to validate me.