Tupac Shakur Quotes

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• Everybody’s at war with different things…I’m at war with my own heart sometimes.
• There’s gonna be some stuff u gonna see that’s gonna make it hard To smile in the future, but through whatever you see, Through all the rain and all the pain, you gotta keep your sense of humor. you gotta be able to smile through all this bullshit.
• All good niggers, all the niggers who change the world, die in violence. They don’t die in regular ways.
• Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
• The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
• The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothing to get out of who I am and go into somebody else.
• I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.
• I swear, if they hadn’t tried to ruin me, I never would have ended up being a rapper. I probably would have been a preacher or something.
• If you walked by a street and you was walking on the concrete and you saw a rose growing from the concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. So why is it that when you see some ghetto kid grow out of the dirtiest circumstance and he can talk and he can sit across the room and make you cry, make you laugh, all you can talk about is my dirty rose, my dirty stems and how I am leaning crooked to the side, you can’t even see that I’ve come up from out of that.
• I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that’s bad, I’m going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I’m doing is right. So I feel like I’m going to heaven.
• I feel like Black Jesus got his hands on me and guides me through life to put me where I’m supposed to be.
• I feel like role models today are not meant to be put on a pedestal. But more like angels with broken wings/
• It always happens, all the niggaz that change the world die, they dont get to die like regular people, they die violently.
• We talk a lot about Malcom X and Martin Luther King JR, but It’s time to be like them, as strong as them. They were mortal men like us and everyone of us can be like them. I don’t want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who i am, this is what i do. I say what’s on my mind.
• I am societies child, this is how they made me, and now im sayin what’s on my mind and they dont want that. This is what you made me America.
• The only thing America respects is power and power concedes nothing. After the LA Riots, they tried to calm us down and nothing changed since.
• Though are hands are chained like they are, they haven’t taken music from us yet. So that’s how I’ll fight. People tell me don’t quit like everyone else. I wont have no fear.
• If God wanted me to be quiet he would’ve never showed me what he does.
• The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
• Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
• Let me say for the record, I am not a gangster and never have been. Im not the thief who grabs your purse. Im not the guy who jacks your car. Im not down with the people who steal and hurt others. Im just a brother who fights back.
• The real tragedy is that there are some ignorant brothers out here. That’s why I’m not on this all-White or all Black shit. I’m on this all-real or all fake shit with people, whatever color you are. Because niggaz will do you. I mean, there’s some [foul] niggaz out there [in the streets]; the same niggaz that did Malcolm X, the same niggaz that did Jesus Christ- every brother ain’t a brother. They will do you. So just because it’s Black, don’t mean it’s cool. And just because it’s White don’t mean it’s evil.
• We are in the midst of a very dangerous, non-productive, self-destructive civil war. And it’s not just rap shit. It’s ideals. And this rap shit is just bringin’ it to a head. The East Coast believe one thing, and the West Coast believer one thing. The East Coast got one way of life, the West Coast got another way of life, it always co-existed. We’re coming to the turn of the century where we gotta mash together. But we can only do it one way, one style. And that’s what we’re trying to figure out now, and I think the world is watching that.
• Imperfection is inherited, therefore we all sin, but fighting the war of sin is the greatest war of all because we all die in the end no matter how hard we fight.
• I never thought I was the best rapper the best nothing’. I think I’m the realist nigga out there.
• If you walked by a street and you was walking a concrete and you saw a rose growing from concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. So way is it that when you see some ghetto kid grow out of the dirtiest circumstance and he can talk and he can sit across the room and make you cry, make you laugh, all you can talk about is my dirty rose, my dirty stems and how am leaning crooked to the side, u can’t even see that I’ve come up from out of that
• I don’t bang for the color or the land. I bang for the principles and for the honor. I’m bangin’ for the Westside- this is in my heart, this is how I feel.
• Can’t nobody touch me right now. Maybe next month all of this will be over. But this month I’m takin’ every movin’ target out.
• To me, I feel that my game is strong. I feel as thought I’m a shining prince, just like Malcolm, and I feel that all of us are shining princes, and if we live like princes, then whatever we want can be ours. Anything.
• My music is not for everyone. It’s only for the stong-willed, the [street] soldiers music. It’s not like party music- I mean, you could gig to it, but it’s spiritual. My music is spiritual. It’s like Negro spiituals, except for the fact that I’m not saying ‘We shall Overcome.’ I’m saying that we are overcome.
• And the raps that I’m rappin to my community shouldn’t be filled with rage? They shouldn’t be filled with same attrocities that they gave me? The media they don’t talk about it, so in my raps I have to talk about it, and it seems foreign because there’s no one else talking about it.
• If you know in this hotel room they have food every day and I knock on the door. Every day they open tha door to let me see tha party, let me see that they throwin’ salami, throwin’ food around telling me there’s no food. Every day. I’m standing outside tryin to sing my way in- “We are weak, please let us in. We’re week, please let us in.” After about a week tha song is gonna change to, “We’re hungry, we need some food.” After two, three weeks it’s like “Give me some of tha food! I’m breakin down tha door.” After a year it’s like, “I’m pickin’ the lock, comin’ through the door blastin.” It’s like, “I’m hungry.” You reached your level, you don’t want any more. We asked ten years ago, we were askin’ with the Panthers, we were askin’ in the Civil Rights Movement. Now those who were askin’ are all dead or in jail, wo what are we gonna do? And we shouldn’t be angry!?
• My raps are a decision, rabble rousing, spiritual, like gospel music. I don’t want to dance. We have so many things to deal with, we need to talk straight up and down.
• I don’t advocate senseless violence of any human being. I’m the one who’s been beat down. But I will not be a victim again.
• If we really are saying that rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you are saying, it dont matter that you didnt make them die, it just matters that you didnt save them.
• But I see now that whether I show up for work or not, the evil forces are going to beat me. They’re going to come 100 percent, so if I dont be 100 percent pure-hearted, I’m going to lose. And thats why I’m losing.
• I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that’s bad, I’m going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I’m doing is right. So I feel like I’m going to heaven.
• I’m just as guilty for not doing anything as I am for doing things. Not with case (the 1994 sexual abuse conviction), but just my life. I was so scared of this responsibility that I was running away from it. But I see now that whether I show up for work or not, the evil forces are going to be at me. They’re going to come 100 percent.
• We talk a lot about Malcom X and Martin Luther King JR, but It’s time to be like them, as strong as them. They were mortal men like us and everyone of us can be like them. I don’t want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who i am, this is what i do. I say what’s on my mind.
• When my Heart Can Beat No More I hope die for a principal or a belief  that I have lived for.
• I am societies child, this is how they made me, and now im sayin what’s on my mind and they dont want that. This is what you made me America.
• All I’m trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me.
• All the stuff I say in my rhymes I say because of how I grew up. So instead of going to a pyschiatrist, I got a kids’ group that deals with the problems a younger generation is going through.
• America wants its respect.
• Biggie came at a time just like Hitler did with the Germans
• Death Row East is gonna be a personification of what we did on the West Side. We gonna prove once that all these people talking ’bout a East Coast West Coast war.
• Don’t change on me. Don’t extort me unless you intend to do it forever.
• Dre was one of my heros in the music industry. If he’s not down for his homeboys, I don’t wanna be a part of him or around him.
• Even if they give me the maximum sentence, that’s still my job.
• Even though I’m innocent of the charge they gave me, I’m not innocent in terms of the way I was acting. I had a job to do and I never showed up.
• Every female wanna come up to me and show me how much they’re not attracted to me… these minority women… they’re the only women I can get cause everyone else is scared of me.
• Everybody raps. We rap to make money. We do business. Ain’t no other record company out there that sold as many records as we did.
• From now on, it’s not going to be a strictly black thing with me. I apologized to Quincy Jones for the stuff I said about him and his wives.
• Hip Hop was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was so different to everyday music. As long as it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.
• I ain’t calling me God. I’m just doing my part on where I think hip hop should go. I think hip hop should be about more money, crazier sounds, different beats.
• I appreciate them stickin’ up for me when everyone was kickin me when I was down. That’s love and I’ll never trade that.
• I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that’s bad, I’m going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I’m doing is right. So I feel like I’m going to heaven.
• I can make my way in this business besides rapping.
• I can only be committed to my work or my wife. I didn’t want to hurt her; she’s a good person.
• I didn’t know I was shot in the head yet. I didn’t feel nothing. Puffy was standing back. They shot me in my head five times.
• I do not suggest that children buy this album. There’s a lot of cursing. There’s a lot of raw game that needs to be discussed in a family moment before you let them listen.
• I don’t have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated.
• I don’t have to talk about whether or not I got raped in jail.
• I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.
• I feel close to Marvin Gaye, Vincent van Gogh, because nobody appreciated his work until he was dead. Now it’s worth millions.
• I feel that what was done in the dark will come to light. There are secrets everybody’s gonna find out about.
• I have a group and a program called the Underground Railroad. The concept behind this is the same concept behind Harriet Tubman, to get my brothers who might be into drug dealing or whatever-to get them back by turning them onto music.
• I just don’t know how to deal with so many people giving me that much affection. I never had that in my life.
• I just put out a hardcore double album. Next I’m gonna put out an introspective album.
• I just spent 11 and a half months in a maximum-security jail, got shot five times, and was wrongly convicted of a crime I didn’t commit.
• I know my life’s not in danger. They shouldn’t feel like they gotta worry about me.
• I never killed anybody, I never raped anybody, I never committed no crimes that weren’t honorable.
• I see myself having a job on Death Row, being the A&R person and an artist that drop an album like Paul McCartney every five years.
• I swear to God, the farthest thing from my mind was sympathy. All I could think of was, Stand up and fight for your life like you fight for your life in this hospital.
• I think I’m a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it’s authority that I respect.
• I used to believe I could never be touched. Now I’m more careful because I have been shot. I know what that feels like. My choices have already been made.
• I used to dress in baggies and sneakers. They took me shopping; that’s when I bought my Rolex and all my jewels. They made me mature. They introduced me to all these gangsters in Brooklyn.
• I went in cold turkey, read, God was with me… The movie is about kids and their coming of age. It’s not a hip hop movie. My character is Roland Bishop, a psychotic, very violent individual.
• I worked hard all my life as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.
• I would rather have been shot straight-up in cold blood-but to be set up? By people who you trusted? That’s bad.
• I wouldn’t sit down and have a conversation with Puffy and Biggie because that’s like Scarface sitting down with the dude he’s hoping to rule. They are not on my level.
• I’d be in my hotel room, smoking too much, drinking, going to clubs, just being numb. That was being in jail to me. I wasn’t happy at all on the streets. That was the addict speaking.
• I’m 23 years old. I might just be my mother’s child, but in all reality, I’m everybody’s child. Nobody raised me; I was raised in this society.
• I’m a convict and my homeboy just got off a murder case. So that tells you it’s pure talent. No hype.
• I’m a reflection of the community.
• I’m a smart general and I’m not gonna attack at no blind soldier. I’m gonna attack those who attack me.
• I’m calling for dialogue. I’m gathering attention for dialogue which is what you do in a struggle for power.
• I’m not a gangsta rapper. I rap about things that happen to me. I got shot five times. People was trying to kill me.
• I’m the rebel totally going against the grain. I always want to do the extreme. I want to get as many people looking as possible.
• If anybody finds Janet, tell her I’m looking for her. She ain’t my enemy. I want her to know that. She met me at a time in my life when I was real immature.
• If Colin Powell was president, I’d follow him. I wanna get into politics. That’s the way for us to overcome a lot of our obstacles.
• If I win and get the money, then the Oakland Police department is going to buy a boys’ home, me a house, my family a house, and a Stop Police Brutality Center.
• If you believe in God, believe in Death Row East.
• If you make me do it, then I don’t wanna do it, I don’t care how many albums you brought.
• If you’re a black man, they really call you out and have you deal with them.
• In Marin City it seemed like things were real country. Everything was straightforward. Poverty was straightforward.
• In spite of the gangs and all that we still came up with this culture. We never got what we deserved.
• Instead of of being so metaphorical with the rhyme, I was encouraged to go straight at it and hit it dead on and not waste time trying to cover things.
• It seems like every time you come up something happens to bring you back down.
• It’s a struggle for every young Black man. You know how it is, only God can judge us.
• It’s all about addressing the problems that we face in everyday society-police brutality, poverty, unemployment, insufficient education, disunity and violence, black-on-black crime, teenage pregnancy, crack addiction.
• It’s no longer a fad to be down for the young Black male. Everybody wants to go past. Like the gangster stuff, it just got exploited.
• It’s the game of life. Do I win or do I lose?. One day they’re gonna shut the game down. I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it’s my turn to leave.
• My music will mean something. I’ll have my own production company. I’m doing my own movies. I have my own restaurant. I just wanna expand.
• Nobody ever came to save me. They just watch what happen to you.
• Other people need to just know that life’s a bitch!
• People on the East coast are real proud and real cultural and real strong like we are on the west coast.
• Puffy wrote me while I was in jail. I wrote him back that I don’t got no problems with him. I don’t want it to be fighting, I just wanna make my money.
• Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
• Recognize us. By sales and by representing.
• Snoop went on trial for murder. Somebody said Dre was in the car.
• Sometimes when I’m drunk I think to myself, Should I just stop tryinand give up? They’re waiting for me to give up. So this is just a fun little game that I cry at sometime.
• The addict in Tupac is dead. The excuse maker in Tupac is dead. The vengeful Tupac is dead. God let me live for me to do something extremely extraordinary.
• The Bay is the type of place where if you ain’t there, they’re gonna talk about you.
• The first two days in prison, I had to go through what life is like when you’ve been smoking weed for as long as I have and then you stop. I didn’t know myself.
• The only time I have problems is when I sleep.
• There’s nobody in the business strong enough to scare me.
• They thought they were just gonna make millions and there wasn’t gonna be no problems? You wanna be in the rap game, hustle for it just like I had to do.
• This ain’t no game. If this was chess, we’d be yelling checkmate three years ago.
• Thug Life to me is dead.
• Tupac the son of the Black Panther, and Tupac the rider. Those are the two people inside of me. I was raised off those ideals.
• We already run these streets out here. We got the ways to make them use their talents to the maximum affect. And thats what it’s about.
• We are together as black men-they over there, we over here. If we really gonna live in peace, we all can’t be in the same room. Yellow M&M’s don’t move with green M&M’s.
• What I learned in jail is that I can’t change. I can’t live a different lifestyle-this is it. This is the life that they gave and this is the life that I made.
• When I dis y’all, it’s not because I’m ungrateful, it’s because I’m nervous. I’m paranoid, I just got out of jail. I’ve been shot, cheated, lied and framed.
• When the charge first came up, I hated black women. Then, going to trial, I started seeing the black women that was helping me. It’s mostly black female guards. They treat me with human respect.
• When you do rap albums, you got to train yourself. You got to constantly be in character.
• Whether I show up for work or not, the evil forces are going to be at me. They’re going to come 100 percent.
• With all my fans I got a family again.
• You can’t disrespect the love. You can’t disrespect the peace treaty.
• You just can’t be calling us fakers and pretenders and non-creative and say we can’t freestyle.
• You never know what’s going on in somebody’s mind. There’s a lot of pressure on someone growing up. You have to watch it.