RUSSELL SIMMONS

Art allows people a way to dream their way out of their struggle.

I want to get involved in things that makes a difference in peoples lives and lifts them up. I don't want to be a part of anything that's not inspiring or helpful to the community that I'm serving.

Well, it's the last step of the civil rights movement: You know, wrap your hands around some money, right?

The difference between blues, jazz, rock n' roll and rap is that rap stayed poor. Even the white rappers are poor. It's scarier to look at poor people; it makes everyone uncomfortable. Their pain is something that people would like to see swept under the rug.

I don't use my brain about the creative thing. From a business standpoint, I instinctively do things: when I get something right, it's never because I use my brain.

Young people, when they're left alone, always want to have compassion, and they always want to give. They always want to help people who are less fortunate.

My little girls are the most beautiful women in the world. I am a lucky, lucky man. I will spend every day making sure that they know this.

My experiences have been, from the very beginning, cultural and creative. And my business has been a way of exposing the culture, exposing the artists so that the world could hear and see them.

American democracy is spoiled by people buying everything in sight and then selling and buying everything in sight, including our politicians.

If you wake up deciding what you want to give versus what you're going to get, you become a more successful person. In other words, if you want to make money, you have to help someone else make money.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.

I'm a creative guy. And I only do businesses as a result of like I've - I'm try to find what my gifts are and give them immediately. As soon as I get them and I understand, I give them back.

Respect your parents. What they tell you is true. Hard work, dedication and faith will get you anything. Imagination will drive itself. You can get anything you want, but you have to have faith behind all your ideas. Stick to your goals and have an undying faith.

Hip-hop is a voice for voiceless poor people.

I produced Run DMC. I produced some early records, lots of records early on.

When I started the diamond business, no black person, period, was in it to do what we're trying to do to change the industry. So I like to do things that I see clearly that are in my, you know, scope. And then, I had to figure how I get talented or smart business people around me to execute. That's what I have to do.

You know, I love all kinds of activism. I certainly think blacks deserve to have something whether it is affirmative action or an opportunity that should be opened up to them. But at the same time I believe that people of color are not the only poor people in America and all over the world.

I think I'm less afraid of failure than some others.

Judgment of the people in the situation is not helpful. How can you help them is the question.

I run a bunch of charities and I say this line to people: 'I am somebody who has always been helped.' A little thing like that can make people believe it.

Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. Pick people who are interested in what you're interested in.

Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.

If you wake up deciding what you want to give versus what you're going to get, you become a more successful person.

I think I will always have a connection to young people, to try to bring their voices to the polls, bring their voices wherever they can make a difference.

I'm a big supporter of President Obama.