“I’ve put myself in a lot of places where a vain person wouldn’t put themselves in. Like what’s vanity about wearing a kilt?”
June 2013, The New York Times

“I hate when I’m on a flight and I wake up with a water bottle next to me like oh great now I gotta be responsible for this water bottle”
October 2010, Twitter

“Come on now! How could you be me and want to be someone else?”
August, 2005, The Guardian

“I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph.”
May 2009, Reuters

“Good pussy is fleeting. What’s another word for ‘good pussy’ that’s less vulgar?”
September, 2007, Rolling Stone

“I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.”
March 2009, Storytellers, VH1

“There’s nothing I really wanted to do in life that I wasn’t able to get good at. That’s my skill. I’m not really specifically talented at anything except for the ability to learn. That’s what I do. That’s what I’m here for.”
August, 2005, The Guardian

“I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means. I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of internet, downtown, fashion, culture. Period. By a long jump. I honestly feel that because Steve has passed, you know, it’s like when Biggie passed and Jay-Z was allowed to become Jay-Z.”
June 2013, The New York Times

“Sometimes I get emotional over fonts”
August 2010, Twitter

“I don’t even listen to rap. My apartment is too nice to listen to rap in.”
November 2008, radio interview

“I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice.”
November 2008, AP

“Man… whatever happened to my antique fish tank?”
September 2010, Twitter

On his instinct:
“It’s only led me to complete awesomeness at all times. It’s only led me to awesome truth and awesomeness. Beauty, truth, awesomeness. That’s all it is.”
June 2013, The New York Times

“There is no astronaut training for celebrity… even though this whole life is so outer space!”
January 2011, Twitter

“I’m like a vessel, and God has chosen me to be the voice and the connector.”
December 2008, The Fader

On a line from “Slow Jamz” on his debut album The College Dropout:
“That line made me a star. Before that record came out, I used to go to Virgin Megastore and thank God for those last moments of solitude, because I knew I’d be famous after people heard the Michael Jackson line.”
September, 2007, Rolling Stone

“First beat I did was in seventh grade, on my computer. I got into doing beats for the video games I used to try to make. My game was very sexual. The main character was, like, a giant penis. It was like Mario Brothers, but the ghosts were, like, vaginas. Mind you, I’m 12 years old, and this is stuff 30-year-olds are programming. You’d have to draw in and program every little step — it literally took me all night to do a step, ’cause the penis, y’know, had little feet and eyes.”
February, 2009, Details

“I just threw some kazoo on this bitch”
February 2011, Twitter

“Just imagine if I woke up one day and I was whack. What would I do then?”
August, 2005, The Guardian

“One of the problems with being a bubbling source of creativity — it’s like I’m bubbling in a laboratory, and if you don’t put a cap on it, at one point it will, like, break the glass. If I can hone that… then I have, like, nuclear power, like a superhero, like Cyclops when he puts his glasses on.”
February, 2009, Details

“Man…ninjas are kind of cool…I just don’t know any personally”
September 2010, Twitter