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I Believe Every Pencil Has To Be Sharpened Every Now And Then To Stay Sharp, Or You Dull Out. So My Records, I Chose To Speak On What Black People Do, What White People Do, What Women Do, What Men Do.

-Ice Cube

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I Believe Every Pencil

Ice Cube

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I Believe Every Pencil Has To Be Sharpened Every Now And Then To Stay Sharp, Or You Dull Out. So My Records, I Chose To Speak On What Black People Do, What White People Do, What Women Do, What Men Do.

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Truth Is The Ultimate Power. When The Truth Comes Around, All The Lies Have To Run And Hide.

Keep Doin' What You're Doin', Fall In Love With What You're Creating, And Everything Else Will Fall Into Place.

Falling In Love

Creating Is Really What I Like To Do. The Best Thing In The World Is To Have An Idea In The Back Of Your Head And Then To Make That Idea Into A Movie And Have People All Over The World Enjoy It.

I'm The Most Successful Person In My Generation Of Family Members, And That Sucks.

That's Always Been My Approach, To Expose What's Going On And What's Not Being Said. I Could Go The Selfish Route, And Probably Make A Whole Lot More Money, But That's Not What It's About, It's About Speaking For People Who Can't Speak For Themselves.

Don't Worry About Being A Star, Worry About Doing Good Work, And All That Will Come To You.

I'm A Good Counter Comedian. I Can Just Work It Off With Looks, Or Have Something Crazy To Say Back. That Works For Me.

Sometimes Guys Just Want The Girl And Want To Drop The Kids Off Anywhere They Can. Guys Its A Package. You Like A Woman, Shes Got Kids, Its A Package. You Cant Just Go In One-sided. Its Pretty Cool.

I Have Great People, Smart People That Are Around Me And We Love The Challenge. I Guess It's Like Climbing A Mountain Or Building A Building. It's A Challenge But You Love Every Challenge That It Brings Or Presents Itself.

You Pay To Have A Good Time, You Don't Always Want To Pay To Be Schooled Or Sad Or Reminded How Bad You Got It. To Me A Movie Theater Ain't Always The Place For That.

I'm Trying To Cut Down A Little On Eating, On Sodium, Keep My Blood Pressure Down, Which Is Tough. Because I Love Food! I Do, But It's Unfair How Everything That's Bad For You Tastes So Good, And All The Good Stuff, Veggies And Green Things, Doesn't Match Up.

I Think That My "let's Get It Done! Let's Have Fun! Let's Make A Great Movie!" Attitude Helped. I Rarely Have Problems On My Movies With Egos And Attitudes.

I've Done Movies For Certain Reasons; I Did 'anaconda' Because The Black Man Lives. Simple. The Black Man Isn't Dead In The First Three Pages, Like Jurassic Park. It's Like, 'the Black Man Kills The Snake With A Latino Girl? Damn! I Got To Do This.'

Whatever Happened In The Neighborhood. That's What I Was Rapping About. And That Sparked People's Interest. And That's What Kind Of Put Me On That Path.

I Grew Up In The Seventies And Disco Was Big. That Influenced Me The Most.

Nobody I Know Got Killed In South Central La. Today Was A Good Day.

You Can't Pussyfoot Around. When You're Talking To Lions, You Can't Meow Like A Pussycat.

When People See The Cubevision Logo, They Should Know It's Something Good, Something Worth Checking Out.

Ice Cube Is The Piece Of Me That I Give Away To The Public.

There's Never Really Been A Real Hood Christmas Movie.

A Lot Of People Have A Misconception Of What The Ghetto Is All About. You Know, It's Only A Small Percentage Of The People That Are Bad. Everybody Else Is Good.

You Have To Resist Falling In Love With The Money They [producers] Want To Give You. You Have To Really Resist That, And You Have To Just Think About The Work And Whether It's A Movie That You Would Want To See.

Falling In Love

I Won't Lay Down My Principles For Any Kind Of Recognition Or Any Kind Of Position Or Trying To Be More Famous. It's Just Not In Me. I'd Rather Be A Man. And Then To Have All This Crazy Stuff On My Conscience.

Our Records, If You Have A Dark Sense Of Humor, Were Funny, But Our Records Weren't About Comedy. They Were About Protests, Fantasy, Confrontation And All That.

I Been All Around The World And I Haven't Found A City That I'd Rather Be From Or Rather Come Back To Than Los Angeles.

I'm Not Sure If Music Got A Future. We Have All These Electronic Ways To Download And Steal Music And Get Music, But There's No Money In Makin' Music.

Don't Want To Hear My Favorite Rapper Doin' A Love Song. If I Want To Hear Something Soft, I'll Throw On Luther Vandross.

It's Always Great When You're Able To Give Fans What They Expect And Even A Little More.

You Learn That Hollywood Has Its Own Rules, Sometimes. And It's Tricky, And Sometimes You Can't See What's Coming Around The Corner.

I Know My Flavor's Going To Work Because I Just Know There's Not A Lot Of Guys Like Me Around. So You Got To Figure Out What's That About You.

People Are Still Tied To Their Hoods, And It's Usually Not The Artist, It's Usually The Friends And Instigators Who Get It Popping.

I Wish The World Would Become What God Wanted It To Be In The First Place, Before We Tampered With It.

What I Learned From Architectural Drafting Is That Everything Has To Have A Plan To Work. You Just Can't Wing It. I Can't Get All The Materials I Need For A House And Just Start Building. Whether It's A Career, Family, Life - You Have To Plan It Out.

Twerking Has To End. Not For The Ones That Look Good Doing It, But For All The Ones That You Feel, 'you Don't Have Enough To Twerk Back There. Your Twerkin' Look Like Jerkin.'

I Think Rap Music Is Brought Up, Gangster Rap In Particular, As Well As Video Games, Every Other Thing They Try To Hang The Ills Of Society On As A Scapegoat.

I've Got A Basketball Signed By All The Greats From Julius Irving To Oscar Robinson. It Was At An All Star Game I Got Them All To Sign It. So That Ain't Going Nowhere. I'm Going To Die With That In My Casket.

If I Only Had 24 Hours To Live, I Would Spend The Time Telling Everybody I Love That I Love Them.

You Got To Get Used To Somebody, When You're Acting Or Going Through A Scene, Somebody Yelling, "do It A Little Louder!" Ok, You Do It A Little Louder.

Comedies In Hollywood Is Usually The Path Of Least Resistance When It Comes To Being Black In Hollywood And Putting Movies Together. They Would Rather Make Us Laugh Than Cry, In Some Respect.

I Think Everybody Likes A Person That Stands Up For Themselves. Nobody Likes A Punk Or A Coward.

I Was A Very Interested Arts Student, I Was Always Into That Part Of School And When I Got Into High School I Went Into Architectural Drafting. It Gave Me An Understanding Of How To Build Things And It’s Really Helped Me Put Things In Perspective. With My Music And My Movies, To Me It’s All Art.

Everybody That Wants To Be Successful Should Always Be Careful Of What You Wish For. A Lot Of Artists And Entertainers Want To Put The Genie Back In The Bottle And Wish They Could Go Back To Being What They Were.

I'm A Menace To Society, But Girls In Biker Shorts Are So Fly To Me. After The Date, I'mma Want To Do The Wild Thing... You're Talkin' Lobster? I'm Thinkin' Burger King.

I Always Said That What I Do Is Street Knowledge, You Let The Street Know What The Politicians Of Today Are Doing, And If The Politicians Are Listening, Let Them Know What The Streets Think.

You Never Get Tired Of Seeing Yourself On Tv. It's Always Extra Cool... Always A Treat.

The Moral Is That A Career Can Be Gone In An Instant. And All You Have In This World Are The People You Love.

If You Love What You Do, And You Believe In Your Talent, There's Nothing Better Than Breaking Through. There's No Better Feeling Than Breaking Through.

I'm Just An Entertainer, Man. I Don't Like To Pigeonhole Myself To Anything. I Love To Do It All.

There's Things People Say In The Barbershop They Won't Even Say In Their Own Living Room, Because It's Just One Of Those Zones Where Nobody's Going To Judge You Too Much About Your Dumb Opinion.

Success Really Comes Down To The Product, Not To Me, My Personality, Or What Club I'm Seen Going Into Or Coming Out Of. None Of That Matters. What's Important Is Whether Or Not People Feel Like They Wasted Their Time Or Money When They Pay For A Movie Or A Cd.

Humpty Dumpty Sat On The Wall With A Joint, Drinking Some Eight-ball.

Rapping Is Talking And Communicating, And That's Always Good.

Today I Didn't Even Have To Even Use My A.k ! I Got To Say It Was A Good Day

When I Was In N.w.a. And Didn't Get Paid All The Money I Was Owed, That's When The Business Side Of Showbiz Hit Me.

As Far As Producing, Once We Started Shooting, I Soon Realized Where The Critical Decisions About The Movies Were Really Being Made, And It Wasn't On The Set. They Were Being Made In The Production Meetings. That's Where Producing A Movie Happens. And That's Where I Wanted To Be. I Didn't Just Want To Be A Piece, A Pawn Being Played. I Wanted To Take Part In The Creative Process, And That's How I Sort Of Got Introduced To The Idea.

Critical Decisions

There's A Lot Of Potential That Goes Unused In Places Like South Central L.a., A Lot Of Brilliant, Smart People Who Just Don't Have That Chance To Show It.

I Used To Love To Draw. I Didn't Want To Go To Art Class Because I Felt That Would Be Too Corny When I Was Young, But Architectural Drafting Was The Cool Thing To Do Because There Was More Precision. It Taught Me A Lot About Building And Structures And Doorways And Frames And Windowsills.

I Like Obama, But I Understand That His Hands Are Tied, The Way Congress Is Reacting. It's Just Partisan Politics Everywhere, And Don't Know How We Going To Get Things Done In The Future Without Compromising A Little Bit.

Everybody Thinks The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side. If You Talk To Most Artists, They Think They Can Play Something, You Know, "if I Had Stayed Playing Football In High School, If I Had Been Doing Basketball..." Everybody's Got Their Fantasies And Thinks The Grass Is Greener. It's Not. It's Not.

Keep Everybody Out Your Business, That's How You Do It. And I Mean Everybody. It Ain't About Having A Relationship Outside Of The House. It's About Having A Relationship Within Each Other. When Something Go Down Don't Be Calling Your Sister Or Your Mother; I'm Not Gonna Be Calling My Brother Or Uncles. We're Gonna Work It Out.

I Think [director] Malcolm Lee Is A Real Master At Being Able To Make You Laugh While Bringing Serious Subject-matter, So The Movie Doesn't Hinge On Silliness, But On Real Life.

I'm Always The "less Is More" Guy When It Comes To A Scene. So I'ma Be The One Who Will Keep It Grounded. Even If I Let It Go Off And Go Crazy, I'm Still The Voice Of Keeping Things Grounded In Reality.

I've Never Really Taken Myself Too Serious. That's Everybody Else, Listening To The Music Or Whatever. I've Always Said What I've Felt, Said What I Thought Was Right, But I've Always Had A Comedic Bone.

The Real Is Always Presented. That Hardcore Record Or Movie Is Not Needed In The Hood, Because It's Already There. You Can See It With Your Own Eyes.

Most Actors Have To Sit By The Phone And Wait For Somebody To Call Them Up To Audition And Stuff. I Don't Think I Can Exist In Hollywood Just On That. I Think I Need To Be Proactive And Making Sure That Things I Really Want To Do Are Being Developed To The Point Where Somebody Wants To Make Them?

I've Been Fighting My Whole Career To Show A Different Side And Prove Naysayers - Not Prove Them Wrong, Because I Don't Think You Should Get Your Energy From Negative People.

You Can't Boycott Something You Never Went To Anyway,so Why Put Energy Into It?

I Don't Know What's My First Real Memory. When You're Little, You're Always Looking Forward To Days That Are Special, Like Christmas, Birthdays, The Fourth Of July, And Family Gatherings. But I Can't Pinpoint My Earliest Memory.

I Really Appreciate Family. I Really Can't Imagine Life Without Them!

The Best Thing I've Done With My Money Is Buy A House For My Family. You Wake Up To A House You Love And You Feel Like Somebody.

They Thought We Were Just Basically Keeping Ourselves Underground On Purpose. And It Was Just Strange For People To Approach Music That Way. And For Rap, Trying To Get Recognition, And Be Seen As A Regular Form Of Music Like Anything Else. I Mean, The Soul, R&b, Rock 'n Roll, They Would Dis The Hell Out Of Rap When It First Came Out.

I'm Interested In How Things Are Put Together, And That's More Interesting To Me Than Just Regular Shows, Even Though I Like The Walking Dead.

I Hope Everything Works In Our Favor. The Show Is Cool. It’s Family Fare. We Ain’t Aiming At The Cheap Seats. Instead, We’re Making Something With A Broad Appeal That People Of Any Color Or Creed And From All Walks Of Life Can Enjoy And Maybe Learn Something From.

You Want The Industry To Finally Admit That You're Good. But I'm Still Good Without Their Admission.

We'll Burn Your Store Right Down To A Crisp.

You Can Measure Films On Box Office Success, Or People Lovin' The Movie Whenever They See It. That's What I Measure My Movies On. How Much People Love These Movies After They Get A Chance To See Them, No Matter How They Get A Chance To See Them.

We're In This Entertainment Business Really To Give The Audience What They Want.

The Movie Industry Is One Big Collaboration. Music Gives Me That Freedom To Create Things Straight From My Heart And My Mind.

No Matter What Part Of The Country You Come From, You Can Always Come Together To Make Groundbreaking Hip-hop.

Get A Grip, Oreo, And Be True To The Game.

You Always Want Your Kids To Step Up At The Moment Of Truth.

Sports Without Music Is Just A Game. Music Makes It Entertaining.

When You're Spending Your Money For A Nice Outing, You Want To Go Have A Good Time. And I Always Thought Comedies, Laughing, Was Something That Was Made For Entertainment On That Level. And Records And Maybe Tv And Stuff Like That Is Really Made To Be Heavy.

I Go Light On Breakfast. Sometimes It's A Yogurt, But A Lot Of Times It's Leftovers From One Of My Wife's Dinners.

The Hardest Period For A Writer Is The Period In-between Writing. That's When You Can Go Crazy If You Don't Allow The Creative Juices To Flow.

Creative Juices

We Come From The Days When Rap Used To Agitate The Mainstream. Now It's More Buddy-buddy. That Doesn't Sit Well With Me. So What We Need Is [a Bit More] Street Politics, Bringing Up Issues, Agitating You A Little Bit. And Nothing Can Agitate You More Now Than A Terrorist Threat.

My Wife Keeps Me Sharp. You Know, She Ain't Going To Let Me Get Comfortable With This "ice Cube" Stuff.

Gangsta To Us Didn't Have Anything To Do With Al Capone And Stuff Like That. It's Just About Living Your Life The Way You Want To Live It. And You're Not Going To Let Nothing Stop You.

Run Dmc Brought Us Out Of That Underground-only Feel. They Brought Rap Above Ground And Made It Respectable As An Art Form To Mainstream Music.

The Biggest Change In The Government's Behavior Has Been Because Of Tv And Its Ability To Show To The World What Has Happened In This Community... That's The Biggest Change. But Without Tv... The Separation Between The Government And The People Would Be Much Worse Than It Is.

Sometimes You Got To Start Somewhere. And It's Cool, As Long As Where You Start Is Not Where You Plan On Finishing.

I Was Trying To Be The Best Rapper In The World. I Wasn't Thinking About Acting.

My Advice For Anyone Who Wants To Follow In My Footsteps: Create Your Own Path, Hone Your Talent, Be Ready To Show Your Talent, And Don't Doubt Yourself.

I Care About What I Look Like On The Red Carpet.

Early In My Career, People Wanted To Hear Music About Protest, About Trying To Change Things.

I Know I Ain't Too Old. I Always Think Of My Fans About 10 Years Older And 10 Years Younger Than Me.

Most Of The Problems That We Have Are Brought On By The Government And Not By Music. Music Is A Mirror Of What We're Going Through, Not The Cause Of What We're Going Through.

[boycott Oscar] Is Like Crying About Not Having Enough Icing On Your Cake. It's Just Ridiculous.

Sometimes When You're Relegated To Your Neighborhood, You Forget That There's More Important Things Than Your Neighborhood Going On Out In The World. And That Just Gave Me A Chance To See How Life Could Be. And It Gave Me A Chance To Interact With Everybody, Not Just Black People Or Mexicans. It Made Me Just A Little More Worldly.

I Always Tell People That If You Gave Me A Pen And A Piece Of Paper When I Was A Teenager And Said, "write Out How You'd Like Your Career To Go," I Would Have Probably Short Changed Myself Compared To What It's Been For Real. I'm Just Extremely Excited About What I've Accomplished.

"are We There Yet?" Was The Perfect Title, Because It's Such A Common Saying. And Having Made The Movie With The Same Name Kinda Locks It All In.

I Did Are We There Yet? Because I Wanted To Do A Movie For My Fans' Kids. Black Kids Don't Really See Movies On This Budget For Them, Starring Them. And There's So Many White Kids That Love That Movie.

It's Funny How People Who Ain't Never Been Down There Can Think That America Is So Fair And That We Should Be Alright. It's Funny That The People Who Have Their Foot On Our Neck Are Telling Us, 'get Up. What's Wrong With You?'

I'm Always Open, And Will Criticize Myself, Too. And I Just Think Being That Honest With Everybody Puts You In A Different Space Than Somebody Who's Just Shooting Venom At A Certain Group Or A Certain Amount Of Individuals.

You The Devil In Drag. You Can Burn Your Cross, Well, I'll Burn Your Flag.

You Become A Writer On A Television Show, And You See Yourself Doing Bigger And Better Things, You Don't Wait Till They Tell You, "here's The Way To Do Bigger And Better Things," You Start Writing. You Start Writing That Material That You Might Be Doing Off To The Side. Nobody's Going To Be Paying You For That, But It Could Turn Into Something Big.

Bigger And Better Things

I Do What I Do. You Like It, Great. You Don't, Go Listen To Somebody Else. I'm Stickin' With The People Who Stuck With Me.

You Wanna Be Remembered For Making An Impact And Changing Things.and I Guess For The Good Or For The Bad, It Don't Matter. But I Guess You Just Wanna Be Remembered When It's All Said And Done.

I Never Go To The Grammys. I Just Never Go. I Don't Know If I Care Enough, And I Went Because My Son Wanted To Go, And They Asked Us To Present Best Hip Hop Group Of The Year. You Know, We Had Two Records From Compton In There, And It Was Just Like A Cool Thing To Do, And To Do With Your Son, And It Was Just Cool. But We Was The First Award Up, So After I Did My Thing I Just Jumped In The Car And Came On Back Home.

I Definitely Know The Minister Honorable Louis Farrakhan. But I Don't Really Believe In Organized Religion Like That. I Don't Know What It Does For People In The Long Run.

I Don't Consider Myself Ever Joining. But I Have Affiliations, For Sure.

Cinderella Hoein' For The Fellas, Mr. Roger Was Getting Kind Of Jealous.

My Thing Is: Stay Creative. And Just Because Somebody Starts To Pay You, That Don't Mean All Your Creativity Goes To That, And You Don't Save None For Yourself To Be Able To Do Other, Bigger And Better Things And Still Follow Your Dreams Even If You Start Off Inside Of A Box.

I Would Love A Shot At A Lead Role, But It's Not Up To Me Right Now. I Just Try To Make The Most Out Of Every Opportunity I'm Given, And Hope Somebody Will Get On My Side. Until That Happens, I'm Just A Working Actor.

There's Not Enough Ice Cubes Out There. There's Not Enough Ice Cubes Getting A Chance To Do Their Thing.

Everybody In The World Has To Compromise. I Don't Know One Person That Gets Everything They Want, So The Politicians Are Going To Have To Figure That Out And Stop Pointing Out, "he Shook Hands With A Democrat In 1989. He Ate With A Republican Last Week." It's Petty High School, Even Junior High Stuff Going On. It's Junior High Politics Going On, So It's A Shame.

To Be The Cream Of The Crop Is No Easy Feat. It's A Big Deal.

The Silver And Black May Have Another Home, But The Raiders Will Always Belong To The People Of Los Angeles.

As A Husband, I'm A True Partner. I Don't Believe One Person Should Have Dominance Over Another.

I Think When Hip Hop First Started, People Were Open To It, And Groups Like Public Enemy And There Was Groups Like Poor Righteous Teachers And All These People Who Were Spitting A Lot Of Knowledge, A Lot Of History, Questioning A Lot Of Societal Barriers Was Starting To Be Super Popular.

Once You Figure Out What Your Own Thing Is It's All About Trying To Develop Shows, Programs That Can, I Guess, Enhance What You Already Have And What You Can Add To Hollywood.

I Was Given The Name By My Brother When I Was About Eleven Or Twelve Years Old. He Was Older Than Me, And Around That Age I Was Starting To Get Into Girls, And When They Would Call The House For Him, And When He Was Not There, I Would Try To Talk To Them. I Was Trying To Be The Man And Trying To Get Them To Come And See Me, Not Worrying About Him. When He Found Out... He Started Calling Me Ice Cube As A Joke Because He Said I Was Trying To Be Too Cool. I Just Liked It And Started Telling Everybody In The Hood "my Name Is Ice Cube."

I Could Do An Interview Or Just As Well Not Do One. It's Not Like I'm Looking For Extra Publicity.

Some Comedians You Work With, They Only Turn On When The Camera Turn On, And They're Like Sad-faced Clowns When The Camera's Off. And Then, They Come Alive When The Camera Come On. And You Be Like, "oh, Damn. You're Not A Depressed Ball Of Depression, But You Are Actually Funny."

If You Born In The Mud, You Gonna Be Dirty, And People Don't Understand That.

Seeing My Son Getting Roughed Up By The Police Is Not Fun. It Brings Back Memories Of When I Got Roughed Up By Them. He Grew Up Totally Different Than How I Grew Up, And To Me, He Shouldn't Have To Go Through That.

I Think People, If You Really Want To Be Happy, You Have To Find God Yourself, And You're Going To Have To Have A Personal, One-on-one Relationship And Not Look To Get Through These Traditions Or These Rituals And All This Crazy Stuff When You Could Talk To Him Right Here, Right Now, Anytime, Anywhere, Any Place, From Any Position. And That's The Kind Of Relationship You Want, Not A Standard.

With Comedies, I Like To Be A Producer, Because Comedies Can Get Corny And Go Off Track Real Fast.

The Best Thing To Do Is To Write About What You Know, And If You Write About What You Know You Can Always Pull Those Nice Little Tidbits That Hook People, That Shows That You Know About This World And Can Bring People Into A World That They May Not Know Nothing About.

You Don't Have To Be Super Clean To Be A Super Star

Usually People Who Attack The Rap Are People Who Aren't Even Fans.

I Think I'm Unique To The Game 'cause Of My Versatility.

When You Go To A Movie, You Don't Care For One Oscar, Really. Do You Care If A Guy Got A Oscar On The Shelf Or Is It A Good Movie? And, You Don't Care How Much The Movie Made.

I Don't Listen To Nothing While I'm In The Studio, Because I Don't Want To Be Influenced By Anybody Else.

I Still Enjoy Doing Music. I'm Not Going To Stop Doing It, And Doing It The Way That I Feel It Should Be Done.

You Have To Be Able To Give The People What You Want In Your Way. And That's How You, To Me, Become A Person That They Love And Not Just A Fly-by Night Actor.

I've Always Gotten Good Grades, You Know, With My Teachers And My English Teachers, 'cause I Was Able To - They'd Say, "what Did You Do For The Summer?" I'm Able To Explain It To Them In A Written Form. And My Teachers Always Patted Me On The Back For That, Being Able To Take What's In My Mind And Put It On Paper.

Sometimes When You're Relegated To Your Neighborhood, You Forget That There's More Important Things Than Your Neighborhood Going On Out In The World.

My Movies Work Because Not Many People In Hollywood Are Like Me.

You Don't Have To Spend $200 Million Or $100 Million To Make A Great Movie.

Well, For The Transition From Rapper To Actor, I Was Fortunate That Director John Singleton Pursued Me For About Two Years To Be In Boyz 'n The Hood. I Really Wasn't Even Thinking About Acting At The Time, Since I Was Singularly Focused On Being The Best Rapper In The World. So, That Was Really A Blessing, Because I Wasn't Really Taking Him Seriously.

I Feel Like I Got A Whole Lot Of Living To Do Before I Think About Summing It Up In A Book.

We Should Love The Fact That We're Not Just Getting One Point Of View. That We Have This Diversity In Entertainment, And People Are Not Scared To Be Themselves, And People Are Not Scared To Make People Uncomfortable, And That's All Part Of It. That's All Part Of Being Free.

I Believe Our Society Has Fell Into A Pyramid System Where There's People Relegated To The Bottom Of That Pyramid And There's People That Feel Like They're Entitled To The Top Of That Pyramid.

I Remember Wishing There Was Snow In L.a. And How Jealous We Used To Get Of Those Christmas Specials With Kids Playing In The Snow.

America Eats Its Youth Like Reptiles...educat E Yourself Before They Dumb You Down.

I Don't Cook Gumbo, But I Just Know It's A Lot Of Good Ingredients In It. And, With A Movie, You Got To Have All Those Ingredients.

When My Nine Goes Buck, It Will Bust Your Head Like A Watermelon Dropping 12 Stories Up.

Even Though I Have A Nice House, Nice Family, The Rest Of My Generation Is Still In South Central L.a. My Cousins, My Brothers, My Sisters, They Don't Wanna Move Out. They Don't Want To And They Don't Have The Means To Sustain It. That's Where My Heart Is And That's What I Think About All The Time.

While I Had Done The Movies Through Revolution Studios, We Own The Sitcom. It Was A Situation Where, Once The Team Was Assembled, I Knew We Could Create Something Really, Really Good.

The Way I Grew Up And The Neighborhood I Come From, When You Know Somebody's Beating You And You Still Let It Happen, Then You're A Victim. You're No Longer A Man When You Know Something Is Happening And You Don't Stand Up. So That's Just How We Raised.

I'm Not Really Into The Political Game As Far As Paying Politicians And Stuff Like That, I'm Not Into That. You Do Your Job, And I'll Do Mine.

A Good Movie Is A Movie That You Could See Over And Over Again, Not A Movie That Wins A Oscar, Or A Movie That Makes A Lot Of Money. It's A Movie That You Personally Can Watch Over And Over Again. That, To Me, Is A Measure Of A Good Movie.

I Definitely Support Cop Acting More Than Cops, But All Of Them Ain't Bad, Just Some Of Them.

I Don't Think People Should Try To Force Their Will On Their Family.

A Lot Of Movies Will Deliver On The Promotion But When You Go See Them, Everything You Laughed At Was In The Trailer.

I Hear About People Getting Shot All The Time. But Most Of The Guys You Hear About Getting Shot Pulled Through.

A Bird In The Hand Is Worth More Than A Bush.

I Love Any Time You Can Enlighten People To Mistakes, That's How I Started My Career.

I Always Say The Movie Came Out Good If They Want Another One. That Always Tells Me That People Really Liked The Movie.

My Son Darrel Could Recite 'straight Outta Compton' At Two Years Old. He Loved It! You Can Expose Your Kids To Anything As Long As You Sit There And Explain It To Them.

I Believe Every Pencil Has To Be Sharpened Every Now And Then To Stay Sharp, Or You Dull Out. So My Records, I Chose To Speak On What Black People Do, What White People Do, What Women Do, What Men Do.

I Was Ready To Get Out Of The Box And Play Something A Little Different Than What Everybody Has Seen.

You Don't Wanna Mess Up What You've Done. It's Like Jordan Coming Back: You're Scared To Mess Up The Legacy.

Cool People Still Have A Hard Time Showing What They Got In Hollywood.

You Really Have To Challenge Yourself To Come Out Of Those Parameters That They Put You In, Even If That's Your Job.

Challenge Yourself

Sometimes, When You Want To Laugh, Reality Steps In.

Money Comes And Goes, But Your Inner Feelings, Your Gut Feelings, Your Manhood, Your Womanhood, Whatever, That Stays With You. That Don't Go Anywhere. So You Either Proud Of Who You Are And How You Handle Situations Or You Not. If You Handle A Situation Wrong, You, It Will Haunt You.

I Want To Do More Drama. Comedy Is The Path Of Least Resistance For My Company. People Know We Can Do Them. People Know They Get A Good Response. People Want To Make Them. Who Am I To Push Up Against That?

For Me Rappers And Dancers Are Poets And Artists And Often Times The Most Interesting Performances Are Given By Them.

You Wanna Be Remembered For Making An Impact And Changing Things. I Guess For The Good Or For The Bad, It Don't Matter. But I Guess You Just Wanna Be Remembered When It's All Said And Done.

Hollywood Is Obsessed With Police Stories.

I Have A Really Beautiful Life Right Now, So There Is No Reason To Be Hostile. I'm A Husband, A Father And A Man Who Tries To Do The Right Thing In Life And In My Work.

To Me, In A Perfect World, You Have The Flavor And The Magic Of Movies Like 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon And Bad Boys.

The Thing Is With Hip-hop, It Has Its Waves And The Waves Crash Against The Beach And The New Waves Come In. So To Stay Relevant You Have To Roll With That.

I Can't Really Attribute My Success Onscreen To Any Formula And Suggest You "do This Or That" To Make It As An Actor.

If You Think About Stuff That Happened When You Were Young, It Stays With You Forever.

If It Was All About Me, I'd Do A Whole Lot Of Pop Records, Make A Whole Lot Of Money, Just Rake In The Dough. But It's Never Been All About Me. It's All About Being A Voice For The Voiceless. People Who Can't Speak For Themselves, Who Don't Have A Mic, Don't Have A Say.

The Police Don't Look At You As Long When They Drive Past. Sometimes They Don't Look At You At All. In South Central, You've Got Them Looking And Lurking. I Think It's Basic Harassment. It's Part Of Their Tactics To Have Everybody Nervous Of Them. In The Valley, At Least I Don't Feel It The Same Way.

I Never Was In The Nation Of Islam... I Mean, What I Call Myself Is A Natural Muslim, 'cause It's Just Me And God.

Embrace What Makes Up You. Some Stereotypes Are True - I Love Chicken, But That's A Stereotype, I Love F**king Basketball, But That's A Stereotype, Too. But Who Cares? Embrace It. Be Who You Are, And Don't Be Ashamed Of What That Is.

I’m A B-boy At Heart. I Still Like Rhyming. It’s Just The Radio Game Is Like Chinese Arithmetic. It’s Hard To Know What Nuts To Crack. But I Still Love Music, Been Dropping Music. Never Stopped Really.

If The Day Did Not Require An Ak Then It Was Good

The Creative Process Of Making A Movie Really Turned Me On. I'd Started Getting Behind The Scenes With A Camcorder And Vhs Tape When Making Music Videos.

We Have To Step Up As Adults And Try To Guide Our Youth.

People Wanted To Have Fun More Than They Wanted To Learn From Their Music, And That's Where The Shift Started To Happen.

I Think My Fans Respect Me For Bein' As Truthful And Honest As You Can Be And Still Be Rap Music And Not Be Opinion Music. It's Still Rap, Its Still Style, Flavor, Flair, And People Just Kind Of Like How I Present Myself And The Things That I Do.

I Still Want To Put Together Bigger And Better Programs To Work With The Community. I Still Think I Could Do Better On That End.

The '80s Was Wild Compared To My Real Small Childhood, Which Was Late '70s.

For My Birthday, Buy Me A Politician!

Rap Is Just Somebody Getting Something Off His Chest. That's All It Is.

I Figured, When I Make A Movie, Especially Earlier In My Career, One Thing I Was Going To Make Sure Was That The Movie Doesn't Cost A Lot And That It Has Potential To Make A Lot Of Money. That's How You Get Respect In Hollywood.

Do Not Turn Into Just Cookie-cutter Producer, Cookie-cutter This, But A Producer That People Say Wow, When They Do Something It's Great Or Just Unique Or Whatever.

If You Really Think Back To The Culture Or Just Black America Before Rap Music Took Off, New York Could Have Been Paris.

I Think The Worst Thing You Can Do About A Situation Is Nothing.

Some People Have A Taboo About Doing Advertising In The States. You Know, Where They Kind Of Make Their Bread And Butter. But To Me, That's Crazy.

I Identify With The Bottom Of The Pyramid, Because, Outside Of Having Money, I Am At The Bottom Of The Pyramid.

I Know That There Are Obstacles; I Know That There Are Hills To Climb, I Know There Were People Before Me That Made My Journey Easier And There Are People Behind Me That I Have Made The Journey Easier For.

I Think Rap Music Is The Sole Reason For A Lot Of Black Acceptance In Pop Culture; Because The Music Is Very Popular, It Gets Our Image Out In Other Ways Than In Movies.

There's Nothing Wrong With Starting Off In A Box, But You Got To Have A Plan To Come Out That Box.

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