Life has no meaning in itself,but only in the meaning we give it. Like the clay in the artists hands, we may convert it into a divine form or merely into a vessel of temporary utility.

I would like to explain the meaning of compassion, which is often misunderstood. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the rights of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend

The meaning of life is life.

At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had a conception of life that no experience would ever erase, a predilection for what was real that no argument could ever gainsay, a sense of the world that was mine and mine alone, a notion as to what life meant that no education could ever alter, a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering.

The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.

Each of my artists was affiliated with a gang at one point in their life- the Crips, Bloods and BGDs. This record will be the first time that members of these groups has come together peacefully and produced something really great, ... This project will further people's minds- knowing that there are other options than that lifestyle- whether it be basketball, rapping, furthering your education or becoming a lawyer or doctor.