Quotes from Damian Lillard

I love music. In a lot of my downtime, I spend time listening to other people's music or other people's rhymes and writing my own.

I started working with Special Olympics when I was 17 years old. I'll never forget the first time I did it: I was at Weber State, and it was the summer before I started school. We have to get up in the morning and do this Special Olympics camp.

I know, personally, people said a lot about what kind of defender I was. So I wanted to get better at it.

I started rapping towards the end of middle school. In high school, with a lot of my friends, we would make beats and just start rapping - beating on the wall, beating on the table and freestyling.

I feel like when it comes to rap - like, real rap music - and knowing the pioneers of rap, I feel like there's no competition for me in the NBA. Other guys can rap, but they're not as invested or as deep into actual music as I am and always have been. I think that might be what the difference is. I'm more wanting to be an artist.

I grew up a Warriors fan.

I read, I watch a lot of movies, I'm constantly living, so I'm constantly having more to say.

For me it's just amazing that I grew up watching Tim Duncan and KG and Kobe and Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson and all those guys and now it's like, 'Man, I can't believe they actually got old.' It's like they actually walked away. It's crazy to think about, but the game has to keep moving.

Some shots, for me, are a good shot even if it's forced. The way it might look to a person watching, they might look at it like, 'That's a tough shot.' But for me, it's not a tough decision. I'm committed to those shots, and I spend time working on them.

This era is like, 'Oh, I want to win championships, and how many rings do you have?' I've said that's what I play for: to win. But I'm not as overly consumed by that as how I treat people around me. And how I care about the people around me.

Most parents are able to be with their kid every day. Every day of their life, their parents have an opportunity to be with them, and we don't have that luxury as professional athletes. That's the hardest thing.

When you listen to my music, you're going to know that you're getting the real me, my real thoughts and feelings... I want people to be like, 'Oh, he's fresh out with his music for it to be this good.'

When I get done playing basketball, I'm definitely not going to be a rapper. I'm not going to be an old person who is focused on being a rapper.

I want to see things work out for everybody... so it's a burden I place on myself to make sure that we are performing at a certain level, that we get certain things done.

I want to have hit records, but I'm not searching to say, 'All right, I need this to be in the club. I need this, that.' I'm just making quality music.

I always enjoy when CJ gets rolling because it's not just the fact that he's doing it for our team; it's the way it looks. Smooth. Crossovers. Crafty. Tough shots.

Pressure is the single mom who is trying to scuffle and pay her rent. We get paid a lot of money to play a game. Don't get me wrong: there are challenges. But to call it pressure is almost an insult to regular people.

I always talk about, like, with end-of-game situations, making and missing big shots, I know I can shoulder that. I can live with having the success of the playoffs and having a huge failure. I know I can deal with it.

I like '1989,' the whole album. 'Welcome to New York,' 'Blank Space,' 'Bad Blood' - all of it!

Injuries are a part of the game. Every athlete knows that.

With Biggie, I thought his flow and his swag was better than Tupac's, but I thought Tupac's passion and ability to relate to the average person was better than Biggie, and I thought Nas was kind of like both, with a lot substance going but a lot of swag.

Sometimes, it's just your turn to go through hard times.

I'm rapping, I'm hooping, I'm on a max-contract, I got a big shoe deal. Everything is good now. So of course, the support is going to be there, the love is going to be there, but what's going to happen when it changes or when I'm on the back-end of my career or when I ain't on TV all the time?

I don't want him to hurt himself. I don't want him to choke on something. You're just so concerned for them, and it hurts you. It's so alarming, man. I feel it for the people around me, but it's deeper for my son. Only a parent would understand.