Cole: “Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.”

Cole: "I was just a goofy little funny kid, who was always getting sent to the principal. It wasn't serious because I was smart. I wasn't like a true troublemaker, just rambunctious - like, talkative and trying to be funny. That was me in middle-school."

Cole: “I’m a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that’s never healthy.”

Cole: “I want people to follow their dreams, yes… but I’m not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers… I want to show them that there’s so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.”

Cole: “Anything’s possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles.”

Cole: "I was a class clown. At 12, I was definitely clowning. I was making all the jokes. But I was smart, so the teachers didn't know what to do with me."

Cole: "I'm here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don't follow what you've been told you're supposed to do."

Cole: "I'm not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I'm doing. So if I'm playing basketball, if I'm taking the SATs, like, there's a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it's the same thing."

Cole: "Anything I do, I want to do it well."

Cole: "Touring is very routine. You get to the city, you go to the hotel, you got to be at the hotel by a certain time - it's very routine. I'm not a very structured person, so when I get some structure, it's cool; it's good for me."

Cole: “It’s no coincidence that all the greatest rappers – whoever you put in your top five – I guarantee you they are great storytellers.”

Cole: “I put a lot of God in my music, but not because I’m super religious. There are a lot of demons in my music too. I acknowledge both.”

Cole: "I always feel like it's two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that's step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it."

Cole: "I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things."

Cole: "Rhyme patterns are nothing without meanings to the words. A lot of rappers can do those flows, but the raps aren't really about anything - which is cool sometimes, but to have the flow and the message is one of my favorite things."

Cole: "You can't reverse fame. You can lose all the money, but you'll never lose people knowing you."

Cole: “When I was in college my girl got me a job at the doctor’s office she was working at. I was a file clerk. No disrespect but I don’t think a man can do that job. It takes so much meticulous and precise file-keeping.”

Cole: "As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I'm successful, I never feel like I'm anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I'm never content."

Cole: "I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something's not good enough, and I won't stop until I feel like I've made it. I'm never satisfied."

Cole: "I feel like I'm a New Yorker because I really know the city. I actually tell the drivers where to go - I have this bad habit, I always question the drivers. I do that all the time because I feel like I know the best way, when really it's like, 'Yo, man, shut up. This dude does this every day of his life.'"

Cole: “I’d rather be happy being myself than sad trying to please everyone else.”

Cole: "My real dream is to have a whole, like, buy a whole piece of land. Imagine, like, a long driveway. Like, a cul de sac-type street, with maybe, like, seven houses. Me be right here. Have my mom be able to be right here. My brother over here. My girl's grandmother and family right here. Friends over there. That's my real dream."

Cole: “To appreciate the sun, you gotta know what rain is.”

Cole: "I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing."

Cole: “Keep grindin’ boy, your life can change in one year, And even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere.”

Cole: "I've always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds."

Cole: "I'm half-black, half-white, so I basically put it like this: I can fit in anywhere. That's why I write so many stories from so many different perspectives, because I've seen so many."

Cole: "I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I'm giving you myself in the music. There's where the connection comes from; you can't Twitter that."

Cole: "I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers."

Cole: "If I was to go to sleep before midnight, I would feel weird about myself, like I wasted a day. My most productive hours are between midnight and five."

Cole: “In this life ain’t no happy endings. Only pure beginnings followed by years of sinning and fake repentance.”

Cole: “People think because I’ve got some success, I’ve made it, but in my eyes it’s like, ‘How long has Jay Z been in the business? How many albums has he got?’ Not that I’m trying to be Jay Z, but I am trying to be around for a long time.”

Cole: “I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.”

Cole: “You have to hurt in order to know. Fall in order to grow. Lose in order to gain. Because most of life’s lessons are learned in pain.”

Cole: “If they don’t know your dreams, they can’t shoot them down.”

Cole: “I swear I walk with God, but the devil keeps following.”

Cole: "I met Will Smith twice. I didn't talk to him for too long but I was trying to let him know that my age group grew up watching him - he was the coolest guy on television and the coolest guy in movies."

Cole: “There’s a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are. So, think about that before you judge someone.”

Cole: "I don't live for the accolades. I'm more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings."

Cole: "There was the time I bought three cars in the span of three or four weeks. It was crazy; it wasn't greedy. It was mine, my girl's, my mom's. I got Benzes for my ladies. But I felt crazy. You have to understand I come from a world where we're very modest. But that's not greedy. That's nice, right?"

Cole: "I now possess the tools as a producer and a songwriter to really just go out and make smashes all day long. I could make an album full of smash records that got pop appeal. But my heart is in hip-hop. My heart is in telling stories. And it's like therapy for me."

Cole: “My life accelerated, but had to wait my turn. But then I redecorated, that means my tables turn.”

Cole: "The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people's eyes before you even put out an album."

Cole: “Take a chance, because you never know how perfect something can turn out.”

Cole: "I just feel like, with rappers, there's so much complacency. It's like, 'Oh, I'm a rapper. I'm successful. I make money. That's all that matters.' But there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you're aware of it, it's happening."

Cole: “Keep grinding boy, your life can change in one year, and even when it’s dark out, the sun is shining somewhere.”

Cole: "I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn't going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I've ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn't want to do whatever he did. So after that, I switched to Communications."

Cole: “Either you play the game or you let the game play you.”

Cole: “College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.”