Nelly (Cornell Iral Haynes Jr.) Quotes
I think some of my inspiration came from just being around music. My family was into music. My uncle had his own band and my father use to sing in my uncle's band. If you want to go to the music influences we could be here all day. That's everybody from Michael Jackson all the way up to people in the game now that inspire me.
Quotes to Explore
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My father passed away when I was very young, so I was head of household for a very long time. Whether it came to cooking food or having to braid hair to get kids out of the door for school, I've been one that has - with the help of my mother - has been a father figure for a lot of young ladies.
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To me, presentations are the most powerful device. You can't really name a movement that didn't start with the spoken word.
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We left my birthplace, Brooklyn, New York, in 1939 when I was 13. I enjoyed the ethnic variety and the interesting students in my public school, P.S. 134. The kids in my neighborhood were only competitive in games, although unfriendly gangs tended to define the limits of our neighborhood.
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The stopwatch doesn't lie. The tape measure doesn't lie.
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I couldn't go now to a brand that had a niche attitude like... gothic. I couldn't do that. Well, I could do it, but I wouldn't find it interesting, challenging.
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Writing for children hadn't occurred to me when I was younger, but nine years of teaching in the upper elementary grades had given me a deep appreciation of the gifts and graces that are specific to individuals with 10 or 11 years of experience as human beings.
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I believe that we are at a very low level of consciousness, and we do not know how to treat each other as human beings. We are caught up in our own lives, our own needs, our own ego gratification. I feel a strong sense of responsibility in delivering that message.
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The goal in life is to be solid, whereas the way that life works is totally fluid, so you can never actually achieve that goal.
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It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.
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The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition.
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That was one of those moments where I felt so confident. I played three matches in the same day.
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I had no desire to be a chef, but I had a desire to be someone who was heard.
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Any competent actor could have done what I did.
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In the spring of 1936, I was introduced by friends to Jean Tatlock. In the autumn, I began to court her. We were at least twice close enough to marriage to think of ourselves as engaged.
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What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.
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I still write in long hand. I type like a chimpanzee.
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When I was a kid and putting out my first records, there was a lot made out of the fact that the '50s/'60s generation was so dominant.
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I'm from New York. My grandparents were settlers of Long Island City. When they came here, there was no bridge, and they had to hire a boat across the river. They had a farm, and my grandmother had to go once a week to Manhattan to buy provisions - very primitive.
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I know when I walk into that classroom in the morning, even if it’s for a split second, at some point I’m being checked out.
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It doesn't matter how successful you are in this business, it's tough to get through the next door.
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One of the things I love about music is live performance.
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Socially, hip-hop has done more for racial camaraderie in this country than any one thing. 'Cause guys like me, my kids - everyone under 45 either grew up loving hip-hop or hating hip-hop, but everyone under 45 grew up very aware of hip-hop. So when you're a white kid and you're listening to this music and you're being exposed to it every day on MTV, black people become less frightening. This is just a reality. What hip-hop has done bringing people together is enormous.
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I think some of my inspiration came from just being around music. My family was into music. My uncle had his own band and my father use to sing in my uncle's band. If you want to go to the music influences we could be here all day. That's everybody from Michael Jackson all the way up to people in the game now that inspire me.
