Eminem

People can try to reinvent themselves. I don't think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you've done up to now.

You've got enemies? Good, that means you actually stood up for something.

I'm stupid, I'm ugly, I'm dumb, I smell. Did I mention I'm stupid?

Hip hop has always been braggin' and boasting and 'I'm better at you than this' and 'I'm better at you than that.'

I didn't just invent saying offensive things.

You're not going to say anything about me that I'm not going to say about myself. There's so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I'm going to say it before they can. It's the best policy for me.

Ultimately who you choose to be in a relationship with and what you do in your bedroom is your business.

I don't think I've ever read poetry, ever.

I might talk about killing people, but that doesn't mean I do it.

The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I'm just like, 'Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do'.

The truth is you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.

I feel like a spoilt rapper. I get to pick and choose everything.

If theres not drama and negativity in my life all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

Hip hop is universal now its all commercial now. Its like a circle full of circus clowns up in the circuit now.

I don't hate women - they just sometimes make me mad.

I love the attention but I don't like too much of it.

I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit.

I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.

I come from Detroit where it's rough and I'm not a smooth talker.

I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don't do things to shock people. I'm not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don't know how long I'm going to be on this planet. So while I'm here, I might as well make the most of it.

When you're a little kid, you don't see color, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to rap.

Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn't say I lived in a ghetto; I'd say I lived in the 'hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now.

Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert's Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion.

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I'm learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, 'I can't go to Kmart. I can't take my kids to the haunted house.'

I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

I don't think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.

Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been at a point in their life where nobody believed in them.

I can see you're sad, even when you smile, even when you laugh. I can see it in your eyes, deep inside you want to cry.

Say there's a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter - for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that's saying is that he's living a fantasy life of rebellion.

Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism.

Certainly I'm not going to sit on the Internet all day and read what Sam from Iowa is saying about me. But I'm a sponge. I've always been a sponge.

I want to keep making records as long as I can, but I don't know how long you can be taken seriously in rap.

Well, I'm working all the time to stay out of trouble!

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it's like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can't really speak on it, because I wasn't there. I don't feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

I'm very much a creature of habit.

I need drama in my life to keep making music.

I realized, 'Yo, I can't do anything in moderation. I don't know how.'

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I'm going through or what's going on in my life at that moment.

I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I'm going to grow artistically.

It's just hard to meet new people, in my position.

Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They're only powerful when you got your back turned.

Success is my only option, failure's not.

I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice. And if you're always the new kid, you never get a chance to adapt, so your confidence is just zilch.

Hip-hop is ever changing but you'll always have the pack. And you'll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

I always try to be smart. I try to treat all the money I'm making like it's the last time I'm going to make it.

My only scheme was to be a rapper.

We'll walk this road together, through the storm. Whatever weather, cold or warm

As for my stuff, I'm just doing guest verses for other people's records. I try to stay recording, because if I don't, I get rusty.

I'm not really book-smart.

We'll walk this road together, through the storm whatever weather, cold or warm. Just let me know that, you're not alone

Hip hop is ever changing but youll always have the pack. And youll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

Ultimately, who you choose to be in a relationship with and what you do in your bedroom is your business.

We sing for these kids who don't have a thing.

I am who I am and I say what I think. I'm not putting a face on for the record.

My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.

I was going to McDonald's and Taco Bell every day. The kids behind the counter knew me - it wouldn't even faze them. Or I'd sit up at Denny's or Big Boy and just eat by myself. It was sad. I got so heavy that people started to not recognize me.

You know fame is a funny thing man especially you know actors musicians rappers rock singers its kind of a lifestyle and its easy to get caught up in it you go to bars you go to clubs everyones doing a certain thing... Its tough.

It's kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else's hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them.

Trust is hard to come by. That's why my circle is small and tight. I'm kind of funny about making new friends.

The details surrounding both my marriage and subsequent filing for divorce are private, and I had hoped to keep them that way for the sake of my family.

Rap was my drug.

I felt like I had a really bad case of writer's block... Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can't get it out, I start feeling bad about myself - a lot of self-loathing.

Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can't get it out, I start feeling bad about myself - a lot of self-loathing.

It feels good to have your work respected again.

Nothing on 'Relapse' and very little on 'Recovery' was produced by me.

If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don't back down.

Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn't much. But the things that I'm really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I'm not successful, what do I have?

I'd go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

I stopped watching TV because of 'The Wire.' Like, 'The Wire' ruined everything for me because I don't even want to watch anything else now.

It creeps me out sometimes to think of the person I was. I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.

The truth is you dont know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride and nothing is guaranteed.

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

I didn't have nothin' going for me, school, home, until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

There was certainly, like, a rebellious, like, youthful rage in me. And there was also the fact of no getting away from fact that I am white, and you know, this is predominantly black music, you know.

The kids are old enough now - I just want to let them be kids. I don't want to comment on them too much. They're at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing.

Now that I understand that I'm an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

You know, not to sound corny or nuthin', but I felt like a fighter comin' up, man. I felt like, you know, I'm being attacked for this reason or that reason, and I gotta fight my way through this.

When you feel like youve had it up to here and youre mad enough to scream but youre sad enough to tear thats rock bottom.

I need to keep working on myself for a while.

Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you're always going to find a hip-hop tape; that's all I buy, that's all I live, that's all I listen to, that's all I love.

Somewhere deep down there's a decent man in me, he just can't be found.

I don't think I've ever read poetry, ever. I'm not really book-smart.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn't, then why would you say I am.

If you're the parent, be a parent. You know what I mean? I'm a parent. I have daughters.

When Bugs Bunny walks into rehab, people are going to turn and look. People at rehab were stealing my hats and pens and notebooks and asking for autographs. I couldn't concentrate on my problem.

I try to treat all the money I'm making like it's the last time I'm going to make it.

I've been running a lot, taking care of myself.

The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can't really explain - let's just say it's all I can really do while I'm doing it.

My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we're blood.

I act like sh*t don't phase me, inside it drives me crazy, my insecurities could eat me alive.

Take control of your mind and meditate

Fame hit me like a ton of bricks.

There was a while when I was feeling like, 'Damn, if I'd just been born black, I would not have to go through all this'.

You can make something of your life, it just depends on your drive.

I didn't have nothin' going for me... school, home... until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

My thing is this; if I'm sick enough to think it, then I'm sick enough to say it.

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

I have a slight bit of OCD, I think. I'm not walking around flipping light switches. But when I say I'm going to do something, I have to do it.