Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) Quotes
Beef is not what Jay said to Nas; Beef is when the working folks can't find jobs.

Quotes to Explore
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I had 45 amateur fights, and I was able to win two national titles in those three years as an amateur.
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Greetings and death to our enemies.
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Me and my dad are kind of distant since my mom and him separated.
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When I was young, about 18 or 19, I read all the Dostoyevsky novels, which made me want to go to St. Petersburg. So I went, and I was so inspired.
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Sometimes words are harder than blows.
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My husband wrote the story for my first book, but then he didn't want to do that anymore. So if I was going to go on being an illustrator, I had to start writing the stories, too.
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I developed in my head that I'm never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it's like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it's more like concern. You're concerned about the people - like meeting your in-laws for the first time.
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If you're not careful, you can fall into a destructive cycle of self-pity.
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You're going to change as you grow older, and that messes up a lot of relationships.
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If you think about people's lives, you think about what's significant. And the things I find significant in my life are not the moments when people are yelling at each other. They're the moments when someone says something that is very poignant, but oftentimes not loud.
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I studied at a grammar school and later at the University of Vienna in the Faculty of Medicine.
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News conferences are the only chance the American public has to see Ronald Reagan use his mind.
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It's the thing I struggle with every day: the mental diligence and stamina needed to sit in front of the computer, open the file, start writing and to keep doing so, word after word, until I've created the next story. A combination of learning disability and chronic health issues make that the hardest thing for me.
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The real reform Japan needs is decisive politics when we face issues that need to be decided.
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As a team, you need to come from behind every once in awhile just to do it. Good for the attitude. It makes it exciting. And when everybody knows you have to throw it... that makes it fun too.
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I'm a person who has a lot of energy. So, yes, I don't really stop to rest or de-stress. I just keep going. I figure that if you don't stop, then you'll never notice how tired you are.
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If corporate leaders and their acolytes are not slaves to some meritorious social purpose, they run the risk of being enslaved by their own ignoble appetites.
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I wanted nothing less than to be a fiction writer when I was a kid. If you had told me I would be an artist or novelist when I grew up, I would have laughed in your face.
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I don't do the L.A. scene. I stay focused and very myopic. I don't feel I need to prove myself or be in people's faces, especially in this town.
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(A ruler) cannot and should not keep his word when to do so would go against his interests or when the reason he pledged it no longer holds.
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I believe that true art is universal in its appeal.
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I think the hip-hop purists are purists through and through. They're here to criticize all of us. That's just how it is. We as MC's criticize each other. That's the nature of hip-hop.
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I feel like everything I do in the hip-hop world has an influence. People don't really notice what I did until somebody else does it. As far as hip-hop goes, I want to continue to make good music, and good art. I don't really follow the state of hip-hop.
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Beef is not what Jay said to Nas; Beef is when the working folks can't find jobs.