I'm retiring the Mos Def name after 2011. I'm actually doing it.

I don't care about what brand you are, I'm concerned what type of man you are, what your principles and standards are.

Fear not of men because men must die. Mind over matter and soul before flesh.

I dreamt that I could paint you with words, but there were no colors bright enough, black or white enough, blue or green enough...they didn't mean enough

Make today's solid ground out of yesterday's quicksand.

Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate.

They say that when a man faces his destiny, the destiny ends and he becomes the man that he really is.

It’s one thing to be the greatest; it’s another thing to be necessary. The best are the most necessary: those who take less than they give and love more than they hate.

My presence speaks volumes before I say a word.

That idea of peace and love toward humanity shouldn't be nationalistic or denominational. It should be a chief concern for all mankind.

I don't want to waste anyone's time or money. I want to give people some truth and positive heart lift.

...writing surrounds us: it's not something we do just in school or on the job but something that is as familiar and everyday as a pair of worn sneakers or the air we breathe.

I've just become quite fixated on the idea of calmness and peacefulness somewhere, someday.

Hollywood is a fast-paced, competitive world.

Our flaws are what make us perfect.

There is no "playing with truth" in the Charkha programme, for satyagraha is not predominantly civil disobedience but a quiet and irresistible pursuit of Truth.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Women had a tendency to see what they wanted to see i men, at least in the beginning

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.

The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. The grass is greenest where it is watered.

Then I came in twice a week - for my own enjoyment as well as to be a guide. And then we started to apply some of the splinters of the ideas back into the piece.