J. Cole

"You can't reverse fame. You can lose all the money, but you'll never lose people knowing you."

- J. Cole

"I just feel like, with rappers, there's so much complacency. It's like, 'Oh, I'm a rapper. I'm successful. I make money. That's all that matters.' But there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you're aware of it, it's happening."

- J. Cole

"To appreciate the sun, you gotta know what rain is."

- J. Cole

"But there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you're aware of it, it's happening."

- J. Cole

"I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do."

- J. Cole

"Don’t let bridges you cross be bridges you burn."

- J. Cole

"Keep grindin’ boy, your life can change in one year, And even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere."

- J. Cole

"I keep my head high, I got my wings to carry me. I don't know freedom, I want my dreams to rescue me."

- J. Cole

"I flip my misfortune and grow me a fortune."

- J. Cole

"I feel like I'm a New Yorker because I really know the city. I actually tell the drivers where to go - I have this bad habit, I always question the drivers."

- J. Cole

"You see the clout / You don’t see the real me / If I was sick, you n**gas wouldn’t heal me / Therefore, I’m healin’ myself, gettin’ in tune with my God / Slowly revealin’ myself, buildin’ my wealth."

- J. Cole

"I'd rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else."

- J. Cole

"You have no control over what somebody else feels about you, but you have 100 percent control over how you feel about yourself and how you feel about the people around you and how you handle life."

- J. Cole

"I try to put all those positive things into a regular human character, which is myself."

- J. Cole

"I'm really going out of my way to do it the right way. I'm taking very few cheats – very few cheat codes that I'm using."

- J. Cole

"I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing."

- J. Cole

"You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life's lessons are learned in pain."

- J. Cole

"The same ones you love will bring you pain."

- J. Cole

"I've always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds."

- J. Cole

"I'm here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don't follow what you've been told you're supposed to do."

- J. Cole

"I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it."

- J. Cole

"I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something's not good enough, and I won't stop until I feel like I've made it."

- J. Cole

"You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life’s lessons are learned in pain."

- J. Cole

"In the hood, poverty isn’t just an economic condition. It’s a war we’re born into."

- J. Cole

"I roll with some fiends, I love ‘em to death / I got a few mil’ but not all of them rich / What good is bread if my n**gas is broke? / What good is first class if my niggas can’t sit? / That’s my next mission, that’s why I can’t quit."

- J. Cole

"I can’t tell you where I’m going, just know I won’t stop / Goodbye to the bottom, hello to the top."

- J. Cole

"I’m livin’ the dream I used to write in my notebook."

- J. Cole

"Rhyme patterns are nothing without meanings to the words. A lot of rappers can do those flows, but the raps aren't really about anything - which is cool sometimes, but to have the flow and the message is one of my favorite things."

- J. Cole

"I started playing violin in the 5th grade. They had a program in school where you could get out of class to go play instruments. So I raised my hand, left out of class, me and a bunch of my homeboys, just to get out of class for that day. They asked what instrument you wanted to play and I picked the violin."

- J. Cole

"Imagination turned a Honda into Wraith."

- J. Cole

"I rap better than I dance. Well, actually, I don’t dance at all."

- J. Cole

"I write rhymes in the dark, scared to turn on the light."

- J. Cole

"I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That's why now, even when I get tired, I think, 'This is what I asked for.'"

- J. Cole

"With all the cards against him, he used them to his advantage."

- J. Cole

"I’m grateful for the struggle, I wouldn’t be me without it."

- J. Cole

"When you're headlining, people are paying to come see you specifically. It's a different kind of pressure because you've got to deliver. You've got to give these people what they paid for. It's a different mind state, a different type of mentality, but it's honestly a pretty good problem to have, you know?"

- J. Cole

"You are perfect exactly as you are. With all your flaws and problems, there's no need to change anything. All you need to change is the thought that you aren't good enough."

- J. Cole

"We ain’t picture perfect but we worth the picture still."

- J. Cole

"Perhaps I was foolish, just like the boy that prays to only see the sun / Maybe life happens like tides / One minute you’re low and feelin’ shallow, then all of a sudden you rise."

- J. Cole

"Life is a movie, pick your own role, climb your own ladder or you dig your own hole."

- J. Cole

"Ain’t a way around it no more. I am the greatest / A lotta n**gas sat on the throne, I am the latest / I am the bravest, go toe to toe with the giants."

- J. Cole

"If you truly believe it, that's step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it."

- J. Cole

"I met Will Smith twice. I didn't talk to him for too long but I was trying to let him know that my age group grew up watching him - he was the coolest guy on television and the coolest guy in movies."

- J. Cole

"I want people to follow their dreams, yes... but I'm not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers... I want to show them that there's so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player."

- J. Cole

"We don’t look nothin’ like the people on the screen / You know, them movie stars, picture-perfect beauty queens / But we got dreams, and we got the right to chase ‘em."

- J. Cole

"Life without dreaming is a life without meaning."

- J. Cole

"If they don't know your dreams, they can't shoot them down."

- J. Cole

"We got dreams and we got the right to chase 'em."

- J. Cole

"There's been people who've rapped and produced - like Kanye - but I don't feel like on the rapping side there's ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap."

- J. Cole

"Anything's possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles."

- J. Cole

"If you ain't aim too high, then you aim too low!"

- J. Cole

"The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I'm never content."

- J. Cole

"I feel like I am officially in the game, but I also feel like I'm not where I want to be. I'm far from it. I got a lot more things to do. I got a lot more respect to get…"

- J. Cole

"I don't like to think of it as being fired. Instead, I prefer to think of it as being on indefinite leave with a sabbatical flair."

- J. Cole

"I had a rat-tail when I was younger. I had this nice Bobby Brown fade, with a rat-tail that was long enough to wrap around my face. I used to chew on the end and bite it."

- J. Cole

"I worked in ad sales. I would call up local businesses and try to get them to buy ads in the paper. The whole time, I felt like I was just scamming people."

- J. Cole

"Nothing lasts forever, but at least we've got these memories."

- J. Cole

"Hard to move on when you always regret one."

- J. Cole

"I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn't going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I've ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn't want to do whatever he did. So after that, I switched to Communications."

- J. Cole

"I always feel like it's two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that's step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it."

- J. Cole

"They say time is money but really, it's not. If we ever go broke, time is all we got."

- J. Cole

"Nothing lasts forever but at least we got these memories."

- J. Cole

"I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something's not good enough, and I won't stop until I feel like I've made it. I'm never satisfied."

- J. Cole

"Never give up until you’ve given out all your very best."

- J. Cole

"College isn't in everyone's hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn't mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about."

- J. Cole

"School is a good place – it ain't for everybody, but I think it's for most people."

- J. Cole

"Don't let bridges you cross be bridges you burn."

- J. Cole

"It’s better to fail trying, than wondering what could have happened if you tried."

- J. Cole

"Take a chance, because you never know how perfect something can turn out."

- J. Cole

"Producing all my own songs and refusing to go to the hot producer. That's the biggest risk I've taken so far."

- J. Cole

"No such thing as a life that's better than yours, no such thing – no such thing…"

- J. Cole

"Aim for the stars, and I shouldn’t have missed / But I was riding on fumes, so I stopped by the moon / Now I’m sitting on the hood of this b**ch / like, thanks for the view."

- J. Cole

"Never give up until you've given out all your very best. It's better to fail trying, than wondering what could have happened if you tried."

- J. Cole

"Keep grindin' boy, your life can change in one year, And even when it's dark out, the sun is shining somewhere."

- J. Cole

"My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated, that means my tables turn."

- J. Cole

"Anything I do, I want to do it well."

- J. Cole

"I’d rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else."

- J. Cole

"The music becomes more pure and soulful when it's true, and it has to be true…"

- J. Cole

"There's a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. So, think about that before you judge someone."

- J. Cole

"It's beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success."

- J. Cole

"Sometimes our dreams come true, sometimes our fears do too."

- J. Cole

"In this life ain't no happy endings. Only pure beginnings followed by years of sinning and fake repentance."

- J. Cole

"I do put a lot of God in my music, but not because I'm super religious. There are a lot of demons in my music, too. I acknowledge both."

- J. Cole