“People think because I've got some success, I've made it, but in my ey...” — J. Cole Quote

“People think because I've got some success, I've made it, but in my eyes it's like, 'How long has Jay Z been in the business? How many albums has he got?' Not that I'm trying to be Jay Z, but I am trying to be around for a long time.”

“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.”

“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 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. I do that all the time because I feel like I know the best way, when really it's like, 'Yo, man, shut up. This dude does this every day of his life.'”

“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 could never be a control freak. If Wu-Tang is a dictatorship, how does every Wu-Tang member have their own contract, their own career, and have put out more albums without me than they've done with me?”

“If people had good albums, they'd be buying albums. But people are buying singles because they only have good songs.”

“Sometimes albums can be quick, sometimes they take forever, and we're very good at taking forever.”

“You know, albums are a funny thing. They're not like an intellectual decision. It's a collection of your kind of musings.”

“I want to put out as many albums as I can before I die.”

“We've been involved in a lot of albums that were really rushed at the end.”