Quotes from Aesop Rock

The people I feel inspired around draw pictures, they make paintings.

I am a failed visual artist.

Drawing and visual arts was kinda my first passion going all the way back to when I was a kid. I always felt like it was what I was supposed to do - but in reality I don't know that I ever had the skill to make it a profession.

The neighbors prefer I don't do vocals at night. It gets a little iffy when I'm screaming.

Musicians are all about celebrity first and foremost, and I just can't do it. The second any sort of popularity contest comes into the picture, I have to walk in the other direction. These people are sociopaths.

I think I learned very quickly after I started putting out music... you just learn that people are going to take what they want and make it fit their agenda or make it fit their interpretation. And you make peace with that or you suffer forever.

After much inner debate, I can safely proclaim that Mungo Jerry's 'In the Summertime' may, in fact, be the best song ever recorded.

I always keep my phone on vibrate. Ringtones give me anxiety.

We're all just cats trying to be original, which is what I think being a B-boy is about.

I'm not a celebrity or anything.

God helps those who have no-cut contracts.

I believe giving pets 'people food,' while tempting, is generally frowned upon. As a pet owner you want to prioritize your animal's health over the entertainment value in watching your little guy bat around a small piece of chicken.

I think if the desire to improve what I do starts to plateau then what's the point.

My collaborative albums are always way more enjoyable to make.

I remember thinking that 'Earthworms' wasn't really an 'album' to me, only because it felt like a weird collection of songs more than an actual project.

I want to stay learning and hopefully allow my craft to evolve.

I think I'm always surprised at how much the musicians I meet put weight on things that aren't music.

I love the playfulness and braggadocio that accompanies a ton of rap music - that's basically what makes up the foundation for most rappers. But there is nothing 'weirder' to me than someone who has never doubted themselves.

I think in your 30s you can still pretend you're in your 20s, or at least maintain some semblance of youth. Forty is when you've got to stop denying the inevitable.

I'm just tryin to be somebody I can talk to in the morning with a smile.

It's really rare in life that a situation is as black and white as we tend to paint it.

I used to do a lot of one-off collabs, features, stuff like that.

I love rap lyrics, I love hearing people rap, I love molding a thought or idea into the shape that fits on a rap beat.

To be honest, I think Chris Ware is the only person whose books I've actively and consistently purchased for years.