Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years it's a name that the streets taught me a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment and I feel I've done quite a bit with that name and it's time to expand a...
We start out talking about the story, trying to figure out who is who and what should happen, taking notes the whole time. Then I do a rough layout of the issue, showing what happens on each page. Then we discuss that some more.
Dying, we tell ourselves, is like going to sleep. This figure of speech occurs very commonly in everyday thought and language, as well as in the literature of many cultures and many ages. It was apparently quite common even in the time of the ancient...
I have seen some crazy people do some crazy things on my variety show. I have to stop and ask them a lot of the time, just how they figured out that they could do the things that they do, some of it is just plain freaky.
I travel Europe every couple of weeks. I just came back from London, Holland and Denmark. Every nation on this planet has its issues with race, and I am not sure if everyone has figured out how to deal with it.
Walter Neff: What do the police figure? Barton Keyes: That he got tangled up in his crutches and fell off the train. They're satisfied. It's not their dough.
[to Deputy Harvey Pell] Joe: I knew you had guts but I never figured you for brains. It takes a pretty smart man to know when to back away.
Tom Reagan: If you want me to keep my mouth shut, it's gonna cost you some dough. I figure a thousand bucks is reasonable, so I want two.
Delmar O'Donnell: Everett, I never figured you for a paterfamilias. Ulysses Everett McGill: Oh-ho, yes, I have spread my seed.
Jack Sparrow: I thought you were supposed to keep to the code. Mr. Gibbs: We figured they were more actual guidelines.
Bob Curtin: You know, the worst ain't so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it'll be before it's happened.
Charlie: You're getting on. You're pushing 30. You know, it's time to think about getting some ambition. Terry: I always figured I'd live a bit longer without it.
The companies that I really admire the most are the ones that have a deep visceral understanding of why people use their service, and they figure out ways of making money that are completely consistent with how people are feeling and what they are do...
This dilettante notion that the global economy is evil because big corporate leaders make too much money... they do make too much money, but the only way we've figured out how to generate wealth in this world is through the market economy.
Stop trying to treat music like it's a tennis shoe, something to be branded. If the music industry wants to save money, they should take a look at some of their six-figure executive expense accounts. All those lawsuits can't be cheap, either.
I had to figure out how to survive in New York, and most of my time was occupied in getting an apartment and getting money. A lot of older jazz guys looked out for me and found me gigs and places to stay.
Technology causes problems as well as solves problems. Nobody has figured out a way to ensure that, as of tomorrow, technology won't create problems. Technology simply means increased power, which is why we have the global problems we face today.
I don't have any respect for judges who arrive at the result first, and then try to figure out some way they can bend the law to reach their particular predilections.
Getting a book published made me feel a little bit sad. I felt driven by the need to write a book, rather than the need to write. I needed to figure out what was important to me as a writer.
I literally tried every sport and was miserable. Soccer couldn't hold my attention. I couldn't figure skate. I'm afraid to swim. So I did dance for five years. It came a time where I was getting a little bit bored with it.
In a lot of ways, success is much harder than I thought it would be. I figured that you'd get here and then everything would be happily ever after. But, it's hard work, almost harder once you're successful because you've got to maintain it.
