Quotes by Ice Cube

Do the math, do the math baby it's the curse of money, once you got it, fool you got it.

People associate clothes with actual behavior, and it's kind of crazy. If you get shot in some Levi's you don't go after Levi's. It's not the clothes. It's always the people.

I did 'Are We There Yet?' because I wanted to do a movie for my fans' kids. Black kids don't really see movies on this budget for them, starring them. And there's so many white kids that love that movie.

Go down to the corner store and beat the Jap up, clean all the crap up.

I grew up in the seventies and disco was big. That influenced me the most.

As a husband, I'm a true partner. I don't believe one person should have dominance over another.

You the devil in drag. You can burn your cross, Well, I'll burn your flag.

My advice for anyone who wants to follow in my footsteps: create your own path, hone your talent, be ready to show your talent, and don't doubt yourself.

Boycott Oscar is like crying about not having enough icing on your cake. It's just ridiculous.

I won't do anything for money. I won't compromise my manhood.

If you born in the mud, you gonna be dirty, and people don't understand that.

Are We There Yet? was the perfect title, because it's such a common saying. And having made the movie with the same name kinda locks it all in.

I believe our society has fell into a pyramid system where there's people relegated to the bottom of that pyramid and there's people that feel like they're entitled to the top of that pyramid.

Most actors have to sit by the phone and wait for somebody to call them up to audition and stuff. I don't think I can exist in Hollywood just on that. I think I need to be proactive and making sure that things I really want to do are being developed to the point where somebody wants to make them?

I'm a B-boy at heart. I still like rhyming. It's just the radio game is like Chinese arithmetic. It's hard to know what nuts to crack. But I still love music, been dropping music. Never stopped really.

The biggest change in the government's behavior has been because of TV and its ability to show to the world what has happened in this community... that's the biggest change. But without TV... the separation between the government and the people would be much worse than it is.

While I had done the movies through Revolution Studios, we own the sitcom. It was a situation where, once the team was assembled, I knew we could create something really, really good.

I'm not the type of actor who is trying to do a whole bunch of different shit, you know what I mean?

My worst ever car was a green Datsun B210, back when they called it 'Datsun' -- now it's 'Nissan.' Very unsexy, unattractive. Girls hated the car. I was embarrassed to even be in it but it was my transportation.

You want the industry to finally admit that you're good. But I'm still good without their admission.

If you really think back to the culture or just black America before rap music took off, New York could have been Paris.

I like to tell the streets what the political climate is, and I like to tell any politicians that's listening what the streets think. And sometimes people get nicked up and bruised up, but I usually have a lot of good medicine for that.

Cool people still have a hard time showing what they got in Hollywood.

My thing is, I know kids cuss, they do their thing, but I tell my kids, 'Don't do it in earshot of any adults, or you're in trouble.'

My wife keeps me sharp. You know, she ain't going to let me get comfortable with this Ice Cube stuff.

I wanted to go in a different direction, artistically. But having somebody like TerryCrews in it was your ace in the hole. That makes it very strong, so I definitely had to jump in with both feet.

I'm always happy. I've just got a mean face.

You learn that Hollywood has its own rules, sometimes. And it's tricky, and sometimes you can't see what's coming around the corner.

The creative process of making a movie really turned me on. I'd started getting behind the scenes with a camcorder and VHS tape when making music videos.

There's things people say in the barbershop they won't even say in their own living room, because it's just one of those zones where nobody's going to judge you too much about your dumb opinion.

We should love the fact that we're not just getting one point of view. That we have this diversity in entertainment, and people are not scared to be themselves, and people are not scared to make people uncomfortable, and that's all part of it. That's all part of being free.

I was trying to be the best rapper in the world. I wasn't thinking about acting.

I still want to put together bigger and better programs to work with the community. I still think I could do better on that end.

You can measure films on box office success, or people lovin' the movie whenever they see it. That's what I measure my movies on. How much people love these movies after they get a chance to see them, no matter how they get a chance to see them.

The hardest period for a writer is the period in-between writing. That's when you can go crazy if you don't allow the creative juices to flow.

I like to deal with things I heard about, ... People are always getting their house broken into around the holidays. That's when the crime rate goes up.

We'll burn your store right down to a crisp.

You can do anything in the world if you say Hey man, don't blame me, the devil made me do it. It's an easy way to escape responsibility.

When you go to a movie, you don't care for one Oscar, really. Do you care if a guy got a Oscar on the shelf or is it a good movie? And, you don't care how much the movie made.

There's rumors in the Twittersphere. If I find out that any of my officer is giving out drug and alcohol I send their ass to prison with a snorkel duct-taped to their mouth and me s***ing down that Snorkel.

Keep doin' what you're doin', fall in love with what you're creating, and everything else will fall into place.

I know my flavor's going to work because I just know there's not a lot of guys like me around. So you got to figure out what's that about you.

I don't cook gumbo, but I just know it's a lot of good ingredients in it. And, with a movie, you got to have all those ingredients.

No matter what part of the country you come from, you can always come together to make groundbreaking hip-hop.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall with a joint, drinking some eight-ball.

I'm not trying to turn into Eddie Murphy, and just do kids movies the rest of my career. I'm going to still do a wide variety of movies, as well as do hardcore rap.

I figured, when I make a movie, especially earlier in my career, one thing I was going to make sure was that the movie doesn't cost a lot and that it has potential to make a lot of money. That's how you get respect in Hollywood.

I'm always the less is more guy when it comes to a scene. So I'ma be the one who will keep it grounded. Even if I let it go off and go crazy, I'm still the voice of keeping things grounded in reality.

When you have a good movie, it's hard to categorize it. It's everything. It makes you laugh, makes you cry and makes you think.

Money is the root of all evil. Yeah, money is the root. It's not racism and this-ism and that-ism; it's our thirst and hunger for money. And that's where all the bodies are buried.

For my birthday, buy me a politician!

Get a grip, Oreo, and be true to the game.

Everybody thinks the grass is greener on the other side. If you talk to most artists, they think they can play something, you know, If I had stayed playing football in high school, if I had been doing basketball... Everybody's got their fantasies and thinks the grass is greener. It's not. It's not.

I think when hip hop first started, people were open to it, and groups like Public Enemy and there was groups like Poor Righteous Teachers and all these people who were spitting a lot of knowledge, a lot of history, questioning a lot of societal barriers was starting to be super popular.

You wanna be remembered for making an impact and changing things. I guess for the good or for the bad, it don't matter. But I guess you just wanna be remembered when it's all said and done.

I think my fans respect me for bein' as truthful and honest as you can be and still be Rap music and not be opinion music. It's still Rap, its still style, flavor, flair, and people just kind of like how I present myself and the things that I do.

Run DMC brought us out of that underground-only feel. They brought rap above ground and made it respectable as an art form to mainstream music.

You always want your kids to step up at the moment of truth.

You don't have to be super clean to be a super star.

I get freedom out of hip-hop. I get to be a true artist without any shackles or harnesses.

Should I peel a cap or should I let him survive?

I think rap music is the sole reason for a lot of black acceptance in pop culture; because the music is very popular, it gets our image out in other ways than in movies.

I love Godzilla, but my favorite was on this TV Show, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot. I used to love the idea of having a giant robot under my control. That was like a dream come true for a kid.

I hope everything works in our favor. The show is cool. It's family fare. We ain't aiming at the cheap seats. Instead, we're making something with a broad appeal that people of any color or creed and from all walks of life can enjoy and maybe learn something from.

I'm a menace to society,
But girls in biker shorts are so fly to me.
After the date, I'mma want to do the wild thing...
You're talkin' lobster? I'm thinkin' Burger King.

I'm ready to run a studio. I'm ready to green light movies, and be in it to win it, you know? It's close. It'll happen.

When you're spending your money for a nice outing, you want to go have a good time. And I always thought comedies, laughing, was something that was made for entertainment on that level. And records and maybe TV and stuff like that is really made to be heavy.

Money comes and goes, but your inner feelings, your gut feelings, your manhood, your womanhood, whatever, that stays with you. That don't go anywhere. So you either proud of who you are and how you handle situations or you not. If you handle a situation wrong, you, it will haunt you.

I would love to meet Bob Marley. I mean, he's passed, but that's somebody that I would've loved to meet.

You really have to challenge yourself to come out of those parameters that they put you in, even if that's your job.

The movie industry is one big collaboration. Music gives me that freedom to create things straight from my heart and my mind.

When my nine goes buck, it will bust your head like a watermelon dropping 12 stories up.

America eats its youth like reptiles...Educat e yourself before they dumb you down.

It never gets old. Working with somebody like Kevin Hart is rejuvenating in a lot of ways. He's such a pro. He's so good.

People are still tied to their hoods, and it's usually not the artist, it's usually the friends and instigators who get it popping.

I like Obama, but I understand that his hands are tied, the way Congress is reacting. It's just partisan politics everywhere, and don't know how we going to get things done in the future without compromising a little bit.

You pay to have a good time, you don't always want to pay to be schooled or sad or reminded how bad you got it. To me a movie theater ain't always the place for that.

I think director Malcolm Lee is a real master at being able to make you laugh while bringing serious subject-matter, so the movie doesn't hinge on silliness, but on real life.

It's easier for me to get comedies made because of my track record. Everybody needs to find their niche. I love dramas, but I understand that I am still just a young man in moviemaking. I know there will be some time to get back to that.

Brothers keep asking Ice Cube, 'Yo, when will you bust?'
They surround me and make a big fuss.

I'm the most successful person in my generation of family members, and that sucks.

I'm interested in how things are put together, and that's more interesting to me than just regular shows, even though I like The Walking Dead.

I'm always open, and will criticize myself, too. And I just think being that honest with everybody puts you in a different space than somebody who's just shooting venom at a certain group or a certain amount of individuals.

I'm a B-boy at heart. I still like rhyming. It's just the radio game is like Chinese arithmetic. It's hard to know what nuts to crack. But I still love music, been dropping music. Never stopped, really.

Nobody I know got killed in South Central LA. Today was a good day.

Everybody who comes from the gangster life -- they want what that man in the suburbs wants. Nice family. Nice house. Nice cars. Bills paid. Kids in school. Food on the table. Nothing more.

A bird in the hand is worth more than a Bush.

I believe every pencil has to be sharpened every now and then to stay sharp, or you dull out. So my records, I chose to speak on what black people do, what white people do, what women do, what men do.

I'm not actually from Compton -- I'm from South Central Los Angeles, and my father still lives in the same house I grew up in, so I'm there all the time.

Some people have a taboo about doing advertising in the States. You know, where they kind of make their bread and butter. But to me, that's crazy.

Quincy Jones' autobiography 'Q' is very good. Because he's a master at music, he's one of our greatest composers, and its good for him to have a book and tell the good ole days when he was with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and Ray Charles.

Twerking has to end. Not for the ones that look good doing it, but for all the ones that you feel, 'You don't have enough to twerk back there. Your twerkin' look like jerkin'.

When people see the Cubevision logo, they should know it's something good, something worth checking out.

I never was in the Nation of Islam... I mean, what I call myself is a natural Muslim, 'cause it's just me and God.

Anything that got to do with a pig, I ain't eatin'.

Music has done a lot to enhance the emotions of sports. It's played in arenas. Whenever there is footage cut together they're always using music. And it goes together, you know.

Sometimes when you're relegated to your neighborhood, you forget that there's more important things than your neighborhood going on out in the world.

I been all around the world and I haven't found a city that I'd rather be from or rather come back to than Los Angeles.

There's a lot of talent in South Central L.A., in Compton and Long Beach and Watts, and the city north of Pico pretty much sits back and waits for that talent to emerge and then steps in.

It's funny how people who ain't never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. It's funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us, 'Get up. What's wrong with you?'

We're in this entertainment business really to give the audience what they want.

Don't get a movie confused with real life. I'm a well-rounded human being like everyone else.

Young people are dying for no reason all over the world that don't know why. It's ugly, everywhere.

The best thing I've done with my money is buy a house for my family. You wake up to a house you love and you feel like somebody.

I was ready to get out of the box and play something a little different than what everybody has seen.

I think reading is important in any form. I think a person who's trying to learn to like reading should start off reading about a topic they are interested in, or a person they are interested in.

Sports without music, it's nothing but a game. Music adds the emotion.

South Central is just who I am.

Snoop Dog is the Phil Jackson of youth football coaches. He ain't going to accept nothing but a winner.

The moral is that a career can be gone in an instant. And all you have in this world are the people you love.

Doing it your own way, not having to go exactly by the book to be successful.

The silver and black may have another home, but the Raiders will always belong to the people of Los Angeles.

I'm trying to cut down a little on eating, on sodium, keep my blood pressure down, which is tough. Because I love food! I do, but it's unfair how everything that's bad for you tastes so good, and all the good stuff, veggies and green things, doesn't match up.

There's never really been a real hood Christmas movie.

Even though I have a nice house, nice family, the rest of my generation is still in South Central L.A. My cousins, my brothers, my sisters, they don't wanna move out. They don't want to and they don't have the means to sustain it. That's where my heart is and that's what I think about all the time.

Rap is just somebody getting something off his chest. That's all it is.

I definitely support cop acting more than cops, but all of them ain't bad, just some of them.

The thing is with hip-hop, it has its waves and the waves crash against the beach and the new waves come in. So to stay relevant you have to roll with that.

When I did 'Boyz N The Hood,' I never thought how we grew up in South Central was interesting enough for a movie.

There's a lot of potential that goes unused in places like South Central L.A., a lot of brilliant, smart people who just don't have that chance to show it.

I think I'm unique to the game 'cause of my versatility.

Gangsta to us didn't have anything to do with Al Capone and stuff like that. It's just about living your life the way you want to live it. And you're not going to let nothing stop you.

But with rap music -- not just N.W.A. -- but rap music in general, seeing these artists wearing these team logos all the time started bringing a synergy and energy about having to rep your city, your team, everywhere and all the time.

I think the worst thing you can do about a situation is nothing.

What I learned from architectural drafting is that everything has to have a plan to work. You just can't wing it. I can't get all the materials I need for a house and just start building. Whether it's a career, family, life -- you have to plan it out.

Ice Cube is the piece of me that I give away to the public.

I used to love to draw. I didn't want to go to art class because I felt that would be too corny when I was young, but architectural drafting was the cool thing to do because there was more precision. It taught me a lot about building and structures and doorways and frames and windowsills.

You don't wanna mess up what you've done. It's like Jordan coming back: You're scared to mess up the legacy.

I have a really beautiful life right now, so there is no reason to be hostile. I'm a husband, a father and a man who tries to do the right thing in life and in my work.

I love music. It's freedom, a way to deal with pent-up frustration.

I've done movies for certain reasons; I did 'Anaconda' because the black man lives. Simple. The black man isn't dead in the first three pages, like Jurassic Park. It's like, 'The black man kills the snake with a Latino girl? Damn! I got to do this.'

Don't worry about being a star, worry about doing good work, and all that will come to you.