Tupac Shakur

2 Pac: (on how he has changed the Hip-hop record selling game) I'm gonna change the rules in the rap game. You know, how, like politics, the Republicans are in now; well, I represent that style; I'm the new nigga, I'ma shake up the whole Congress, by puttin' out a double-album-that nobody ever did - I had the most expensive album on the Charts...and I outsold everyone of them muthafuckas. And I did it in two months.

2 Pac: (on race) The real tragedy is that there are some ignorant brothers out here. That's why I'm not on this all-White or all Black shit. I'm on this all-real or all fake shit with people, whatever color you are. Because niggaz will do you. I mean, there's some [foul] niggaz out there [in the streets]; the same niggaz that did Malcolm X, the same niggaz that did Jesus Christ - every brother ain't a brother. They will do you. So just because it's Black, don't mean it's cool. And just because it's White don't mean it's evil.

2 Pac: If you know in this hotel room they have food every day and I knock on the door. Every day they open tha door to let me see tha party, let me see that they throwin' salami, throwin' food around telling me there's no food. Every day. I'm standing outside tryin to sing my way in- "We are weak, please let us in. We're week, please let us in." After about a week tha song is gonna change to, "We're hungry, we need some food." After two, three weeks it's like "Give me some of tha food! I'm breakin down tha door." After a year it's like, "I'm pickin' the lock, comin' through the door blastin." It's like, "I'm hungry." You reached your level, you don't want any more. We asked ten years ago, we were askin' with the Panthers, we were askin' in the Civil Rights Movement. Now those who were askin' are all dead or in jail, what are we gonna do? And we shouldn't be angry!?

2 Pac: And the raps that I'm rappin to my community shouldn't be filled with rage? They shouldn't be filled with same atrocities that they gave me? The media they don't talk about it, so in my raps I have to talk about it, and it seems foreign because there's no one else talking about it.

2 Pac: If God wanted me to be quiet he would've never showed me what he does.

2 Pac: Though are hands are chained like they are, they haven't taken music from us yet. So that's how I'll fight. People tell me don't quit like everyone else. I wont have no fear.

2 Pac: The only thing America respects is power and power concedes nothing. After the LA Riots, they tried to calm us down and nothing changed since.

2 Pac: I am societies child, this is how they made me, and now I'm sayin what's on my mind and they don't want that. This is what you made me America.

2 Pac: Everybody's at war with different things…I'm at war with my own heart sometimes.

2 Pac: (on the state of urban America) We are in the midst of a very dangerous, non-productive, self-destructive civil war. And it's not just rap shit. It's ideals. And this rap shit is just bringin' it to a head. The East Coast believe one thing, and the West Coast believe one thing. The East Coast got one way of life, the West Coast got another way of life, it always co-existed. We're coming to the turn of the century where we gotta mash together. But we can only do it one way, one style. And that's what we're trying to figure out now, and I think the world is watching that.

2 Pac: My music is not for everyone. It's only for the strong-willed, the [street] soldiers music. It's not like party music - I mean, you could gig to it, but it's spiritual. My music is spiritual. It's like Negro spirituals, except for the fact that I'm not saying 'We shall Overcome.' I'm saying that we are overcome.

2 PAC: For every dark night, there's a brighter day.

2 Pac: F*ck the World only God can judge me.

2 Pac: Once people take the time to find out who I really am, you'd be suprised.

2 Pac: Wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal.

2 Pac: In my death, people will understand what I was talking about.

2 Pac: My only fear of death is comming back to the streets reincarnated.

2 Pac: I don't advocate senseless violence of any human being. I'm the one who's been beat down. But I will not be a victim again.

2 Pac: All I can say is I always try to be a real nigga in my heart. Sometimes its good, sometimes it's bad, but its still us. It's never to hurt anybody.

2 Pac: Imperfection is inherited, therefore we all sin, but fighting the war of sin is the greatest war of all because we all die in the end no matter how hard we fight.

2 Pac: I feel like Black Jesus got his hands on me and guides me through life to put me where I'm supposed to be...

2 Pac: If it don't make dollars it don't make sense.

2 Pac: The only thing America respects is power and power concedes nothing. After the LA Riots, they tried to calm us down and nothing changed since.

2 Pac: (On Biggie) Stole my lyrics. I stole his bitch. Took my rhymes. I took his wife. If he talk all that shit about being a playa and I got his wife two days after I got outta jail- imagine that gangsta shit he's talking, imagine how plastic that shit is.

2 Pac: To me, I feel that my game is strong. I feel as thought I'm a shining prince, just like Malcolm, and I feel that all of us are shining princes, and if we live like princes, then whatever we want can be ours. Anything.

2 Pac: I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven.

2 Pac: Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

2 Pac: I'm going to show people my true intentions, and my true heart. I'm going to show them the man that my mother raised. I'm going to make them all proud.

2 Pac: The addict in Tupac is dead. The excuse maker in Tupac is dead. The Vengeful Tupac is dead. The Tupac that would stand by and let dishonorable things happen is dead. God let me live for me to do something extremely extraordinary, and that's what I have to do.

2 Pac: If we really are saying that rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you are saying, it dont matter that you didnt make them die, it just matters that you didnt save them.

2 Pac: Though are hands are chained like they are, they haven't taken music from us yet. So that's how I'll fight. People tell me don't quit like everyone else. I wont have no fear.

2 Pac: When my Heart Can Beat No More I hope die for a principal or a belief that I have lived for.