Kanye West Quotes

I believe that bad taste is vulgar. It's like cursing. I think the world can be saved through design, because what is the most distasteful thing someone can do? Kill someone. So, good taste is the opposite of that.

Black people can be the most conservative, the most discriminating. Especially among ourselves. It wasn't white people who said all black men have to wear baggy jeans.

If you know you're the best it only makes sense for you to surround yourself with the best.

Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive.

I am God's vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.

The prettiest people do the ugliest things.

I'm the rap version of Dave Chappelle. I'm not sayin' I'm nearly as talented as Chappelle when it comes to political and social commentary, but like him, I'm laughing to keep from crying.

We have the ability to approach our race like ants, or we have the ability to approach our race like crabs.

Us as a people, we can't do it on our own. We have to understand that we're not each other's enemy. We have to stop discriminating against each other due to class and due to race and due to location or financial position.

I ain't crazy, I'm just not satisfied.

I try to get as close to a childlike level as possible because we were all artists back then.

I am a black new wave artist.

Creative output, you know, is just pain. I'm going to be cliché for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.

You may be talented but you're not Kanye West.

I'm living three dreams:Biggie Smalls', Dr. King, Rodney King's.Cause we can't get along, no resolution?'Til we drown all these haters...Rest in peace to Whitney Houston

Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you. I'ma let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!

You can't look at a glass half full or empty if it's overflowing.

There would have been no Beats deal without the Samsung deal. It showed the number one company the importance of connecting with culture.

Anytime I've had a big thing that's ever pierced and cut across the Internet, it was a fight for justice. Justice. And when you say justice, it doesn't have to be war. Justice could just be clearing a path for people to dream properly.

I love the fact that I'm bad at [things].

Criticism can bother you, but you should be more bothered if there’s no criticism. That means you’re too safe

The dinosaurs are remember only by their bones. What will we be remembered for with humanity?

It's not 'can'; it's 'will.' You have to will things into fruition.

I knew when I wrote the line “light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson” [from the song “Slow Jamz"] I was going to be a big star.

We rappers are role models.

Okay, everyone please be completely quiet, because I can literally hear a whisper, and it’ll throw off my stream of consciousness, and when I get my stream of consciousness going that’s when I give the best, illest quotes. Literally, a whisper can throw it off.

The only luxury is time. The time you get to spend with your family.

Nobody's gonna be bigger than Eminem.

People want fame and I would never tell a person to not want that, because it's f--ing awesome. Actually.

An artist's career doesn't happen in the cycle of one week of news. An artist's career happens in a lifetime, and if you're a true artist you're willing to die for what you believe in.

I know I got to be right now Cause I can't get much wronger

We gonna touch the sky.

I love [my father] so much with all my heart and my soul with every bone in my body I love him so much because he's done so much for me.

People don't stand up and protect their dreams because they get spoofed in a way.

Death is promised. So what do you do with your life? How do you make the most of it? How do you make your voice the loudest?

A lot of artists have a lot of different ventures, I think it's typical for a hip hop artist, at this point, to have a bunch of different ventures.

When someone comes up and says something like, 'I am a god,' everybody says 'Who does he think he is?' I just told you who I thought I was. A god. I just told you. That's who I think I am.

When you're the absolute best, you get hated on the most.

The plan was to drink until the pain is over, But what's worse, the pain or the hangover?

Life is 5% what happens, and 95% how you react.

If I was just a fan of music, I would think that I was the number one artist in the world.

I've got a million people telling me why I can't do it. You know, that I'm not a real designer, that I'm not this. I'm not a real rapper, either!

The idea of Kanye and vanity are like, synonymous. But 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?

I'm never at my worst because even at my lowest, its a learning experience. It's something that I'll bounce ideas off. I can take negatives and flip them to positives at all times.

I am in the lineage of Gil Scott-Heron, great activist-type artists. But I'm also in the lineage of a Miles Davis - you know, that liked nice things also.

I make all my own decisions and I take full responsibility.

I want to be remembered for making great music and doing great things for people.

I performed it all the way through for people. People would say, "We love you, we want to sign you," and then there'd always be one person who'd say, "He's just a producer."

People in this world shun people for being great, for being a bright color, for standing out. But the time is now, to be OK with being the greatest you.

I can be vilified. I can be misunderstood. I didn't come here to be liked. I came here to make a difference.

Most rappers taste level ain't at my waist level. Turn up the bass 'til it's up in your face level.

I'm a trained fine artist. I went to art school from the time I was 5 years old. I was, like, a prodigy out of Chicago. I'd been in national competitions from the age of 14.

I'm a pop enigma. I live and breathe every element in life. I rock a bespoke suit and I go to Harold's for fried chicken. It's all these things at once, because, as a taste maker, I find the best of everything.

I'm a blowfish. I'm not a shark, I'm a blowfish.

As kids we used to laugh/Who knew that life would move this fast?Who knew I'd have to look at you through a glass?And look, tell me you ain't did it, you ain't did itAnd if you did, then that's family business.

Nike told me, 'We can't give you royalties because you're not a professional athlete.' I told them 'I'll go to the Garden and play one-on-no-one.' I'm a performance athlete!

We buy our way out of jail but we can't buy freedom,We buy a lot of clothes when we don't really need them,Things we buy to cover up what's inside.

I'm really happy I'm me because if I wasn't I'd be scared. If you want that Number One spot you need to listen to my album and try to beat it.

Maybe 90 percent of the time it looks like I'm not having a good time.

Sometimes when I see a bad performance and people still clap... I wonder if they're clapping because they liked what they saw or because they're happy it's over?