Quotes from Russell Simmons

Art is a way to express yourself and through that you can escape a bad situation.

Respect your parents. What they tell you is true. Hard work, dedication and faith will get you anything. Imagination will drive itself. You can get anything you want, but you have to have faith behind all your ideas. Stick to your goals and have an undying faith.

I'm not a politician. I only want to help relieve the suffering in communities, and I want to help people see their community in each other.

Culture in America and everywhere else comes from the suffering, from those who don't want the old ways. They want to bring in the new, whether it's the ballet, when it started, or Shakespeare.

I would like to employ more people but I don't want to empower my charities at the cost of exploiting people or doing things that are not useful, so I'm working on that.

Young people, when they're left alone, always want to have compassion, and they always want to give. They always want to help people who are less fortunate.

My little girls are the most beautiful women in the world. I am a lucky, lucky man. I will spend every day making sure that they know this.

I have 2 million Twitter followers. Some of those people are also yogis and activists and people who really go out and make a difference. I do as much as I can with my voice. It's effortless in some cases. I try to remind everybody that they have that kind of voice.

I've shared meditation with a lot of hip-hop artists, inmates, and returning war veterans with PTSD, as well. I feel like this dharma, this service is part of my job.

American democracy is spoiled by people buying everything in sight and then selling and buying everything in sight, including our politicians.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.

The difference between blues, jazz, rock n' roll and rap is that rap stayed poor. Even the white rappers are poor. It's scarier to look at poor people; it makes everyone uncomfortable. Their pain is something that people would like to see swept under the rug.

The thing about hip-hop is that it's from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized.

I don't use my brain about the creative thing. From a business standpoint, I instinctively do things: when I get something right, it's never because I use my brain.

Look at all the billionaires. If I know 15 billionaires, I know 13 unhappy people.

If you learn late, you pass it on to people so they can learn early. It's a step process.

To be awake is to be fully present, no noise, just you and God. Most of us only have seconds of full consciousness. To live in a state of Samadhi - that's what we're here for.

It's all about the work. Nothing is going to fall into your lap.

I don't spend any time thinking about my place in history, ever. If people say I changed things, it's nice, and I take it - but if I could give it to a charity it would be useful. I really believe now that my only job in life is to achieve a state of comfort and happiness.

I try to use my voice. I know that celebrity is valuable, and people do listen.

No matter where you want to go, as long as you follow your path with faith, dedication and hard work, you are going to get there.

No matter what you're doing, try to work at that task like it's your dream job.

Get your hustle on... Hard work is easy, working out is hard.

People are afraid of failure - they don't like to work so hard and have people keep saying, 'No.' I think that's what people fear most.