J. Cole quotes: perspective from the humble hip-hopper.
“Life is a movie. Pick your own role, climb your own ladder or you dig your own hole.”
“We got dreams and we got the right to chase ‘em.”
“Anything’s possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles.”
“I feel like this: whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.”
“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.”
“If you ain’t aim too high, then you aim too low!”
“Take a chance, because you never know how perfect something can turn out.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I seen a baby cry, seconds later he laughs… the beauty of life, the pain never lasts.”
“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.”
“Don’t let bridges you cross be bridges you burn.”
“Keep grinding boy, your life can change in one year, and even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere.”
“To appreciate the sun, you gotta know what rain is.”
“Sometimes our dreams come true, sometimes our fears do too.”
“If they don’t know your dreams, they can’t shoot them down.”
“Nothing lasts forever, but at least we’ve got these memories.”
“There’s a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. So, think about that before you judge someone.”
“I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.”
“College had a great deal to do with my development as a person. I don’t know if I’d be the artist I was if it wasn’t for goin’ to school like that. School is a good place. It ain’t for everybody, but I think it’s for most people.”
“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.”
“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.'”
“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.”
“I’d rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else.”
“If you place your importance on appreciation and love, that’s enough.”
“As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have a ton of friends and more important to have real ones.”
“You have no control over what somebody else feels about you, but you have 100% control over how you feel about yourself and how you feel about the people around you and how you handle life.”
“No such thing as a life that’s better than yours. No such thing—no such thing.”
“I walk along this long harbor of life and sit on the piers, reflect on my pain and sh*t on my fears.”
“I try to put all those positive things into a regular human character, which is myself.”
“My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated; that means my tables turn.”
“I’m the type of person where, (A) I look at things as challenges, I like challenges; and (B) I truly believe that you determine your own destiny.”
“I truly believe that I make my path and I set my course, and where I land, at the end of the day, or the end of my career, is because of me. Of course, you get help along the way, and cosigns and management and opportunities and things like that but overall, the ball is in your court basically.”
“One thing you should know about me is I never play to lose. Always aim high and rarely obey the rules.”
“Producing all my own songs and refusing to go to the hot producer—that’s the biggest risk I’ve taken so far.”
“I taught myself how to rap and produce music, worked hard, sold great amounts of records and produced tracks for various artists. Although I started being successful at a young age and could have easily chosen to be adventurous and literally do whatever I desired, I chose discipline and responsibility. I found a deeper meaning in having a family.”
“My songs are sayings about hard work and doing whatever it takes to become the best.”
“I’m not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I’m doing.”
“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. Anything I do, I want to do it well.”
“I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.”
“As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. 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.”
“I’ll be dammed if I sit around another year, dreamin’ dreams, hopin’ somehow that they just appear.”
“I’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it.”
“I yearn for that livin’ large, but momma I ain’t done yet. Sit back and watch your son rise, kick back and know your son set.”
“There was the time I bought three cars in the span of three or four weeks. It was crazy; it wasn’t greedy. It was mine, my girl’s, my mom’s. I got Benzes for my ladies. But I felt crazy. You have to understand I come from a world where we’re very modest. But that’s not greedy. That’s nice, right?”
“Promise to my momma I’mma make it to the top, so I’mma keep climbing till my heartbeat drop.”
“Far from the richest rapper, but my biggest personal achievement thus far in my life has been retiring my mom early from her job at the Post Office. It’s a tiny payback for the sacrifices she made that allowed me to chase a far-fetched dream of becoming a successful artist. I’m forever grateful.”
“I keep my head high, I got my wings to carry me. I don’t know freedom, I want my dreams to rescue me.”
“People congratulate me. I just tell them God is good.”
Related: Kendrick Lamar quotes.
