“I'm here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don't follow ...” — J. Cole Quote

“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.”

“Anything I do, I want to do it well.”

“I was just a goofy little funny kid, who was always getting sent to the principal. It wasn't serious because I was smart. I wasn't like a true troublemaker, just rambunctious - like, talkative and trying to be funny. That was me in middle-school.”

“I'm not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I'm doing. So if I'm playing basketball, if I'm taking the SATs, like, there's a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it's the same thing.”

“I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers.”

“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.”

“I do not write dark books. I write candles. I write fire.”

“Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surrender to events with hope.”

“You must understand that all of us are in the same boat which, at times, can find itself in calm seas and at others in rough ones.”

“I don't believe in hope. I believe in action, if I'm an apostle of anything: There are always going to be complications, but to a large degree, everything is in your hands.”

“Pandora's box had been opened and monsters had come out. But there had been something hidden at the bottom of Pandora's box. Something wonderful.”

“I always believe things are going to work out.”