Quotes by Eminem

"I am who I am and I say what I think. I'm not putting a face on for the record."

"You're not going to say anything about me that I'm not going to say about myself. There's so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I'm going to say it before they can. It's the best policy for me."

"I don't think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little."

"I don't think that my tongue-in-cheekness will ever go away. I guess it's just a part of my personality. I always want to keep some type of element of fun to the music as well. If one song is darker or talking about a sad subject, I don't want to make a whole album of that, of being a downer. I don't want to make a whole album of being too uppity."

"My thing is this; if I'm sick enough to think it, then I'm sick enough to say it."

"To the people I forgot, you weren't on my mind for some reason and you probably don't deserve any thanks anyway."

"I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit."

"You're not going to say anything about me that I'm not going to say about myself. There's so many things that I think about myself if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I'm going to say it before they can. It's the best policy for me."

"It sometimes feels like a strange movie, you know, it's all so weird that sometimes I wonder if it is really happening."

"I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn't, then why would you say I am."

"A lot of truth is said in jest."

"I'd go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked."

"Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert's Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion."

"Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been at a point in their life where nobody believed in them."

"If there's not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something."

"Say there's a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter - for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that's saying is that he's living a fantasy life of rebellion."

"The kids are old enough now - I just want to let them be kids. I don't want to comment on them too much. They're at an age where I just want to let them be kids."

"I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate."

"Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can't get it out, I start feeling bad about myself - a lot of self-loathing."

"If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don't back down."

"Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism."

"I need drama in my life to keep making music."

"I didn't have nothin' going for me... school, home... until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything."

"Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it's like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can't really speak on it, because I wasn't there. I don't feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person."

"Well, I'm working all the time to stay out of trouble!"

"Anything I've ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time."

"I love the attention but I don't like too much of it."

"Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing."

"Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you're always going to find a hip-hop tape that's all I buy, that's all I live, that's all I listen to, that's all I love."

"Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They're only powerful when you got your back turned."

"Somewhere deep down there's a decent man in me, he just can't be found."

"The truth is you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed."

"Trust is hard to come by. That's why my circle is small and tight. I'm kind of funny about making new friends."

"I don't hate women - they just sometimes make me mad."

"I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it."

"Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end."

"You know, fame is a funny thing, man, especially, you know, actors, musicians, rappers, rock singers, it's kind of a lifestyle and it's easy to get caught up in it - you go to bars, you go to clubs, everyone's doing a certain thing... It's tough."

"I'm stupid, I'm ugly, I'm dumb, I smell. Did I mention I'm stupid?"

"People can try to reinvent themselves. I don't think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you've done up to now."

"It feels good to have your work respected again."

"Ultimately, who you choose to be in a relationship with and what you do in your bedroom is your business."

"The details surrounding both my marriage and subsequent filing for divorce are private, and I had hoped to keep them that way for the sake of my family."

"My father? I never knew him. Never even seen a picture of him."

"Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn't much. But the things that I'm really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I'm not successful, what do I have?"

"Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn't say I lived in a ghetto; I'd say I lived in the 'hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now."

"A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I'm learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, 'I can't go to Kmart. I can't take my kids to the haunted house.'"

"I don't think I've ever read poetry, ever."

"I always wished for this, but it's almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream."

"I was a smart kid, but I hated school."

"I try to treat all the money I'm making like it's the last time I'm going to make it."