Pored Nas Quotes

I do not tolerate a world emptied of you. I have tried. For a year I have called every black tree Marya Morevna; I have looked for your face in the patterns of the ice. In the dark, I have pored over the loss of you like pale gold. ~ Catherynne M Valente

You know, rap is sort of like a form of talking, right? So it's like you can hear, you know, the slaves doing it. You can hear, like, you know, Africans and Jamaicans doing it just kind of as, like, a rhythmic, poetic conversation, you know, to a rhythm. ~ Nas

Beef is not what Jay said to Nas;
Beef is when the working folks can't find jobs. ~ Mos Def

Nas looked at Vik from across the room, and when he felt her eyes on him and lifted his head, she lowered her glance. It wasn't the first time in the past two weeks that I saw them do this. It also didn't escape Lev's notice that Viktor had stopped coming around. They hadn't spoke in that time.
Something had happened between them, and Nas was not opening up, probably because it was still too painful to talk about.
All I knew was that Nas was miserable and Vik had developed the temper of a T-Rex with itchy balls.
Relationships were collapsing around us, but Lev and I were going stronger than ever. ~ Belle Aurora

I lay puzzle as I backtrack to earlier times, Nothing's equivalent to the New York state of mind ~ Nas

My mother lived alone in the ruins of the great Library, which was called Compleat, and a very passionate and dashing Library indeed. Under the slightly blackened rafters and more than slightly caved-in walls, my mother lived and read and dreamed, allowing herself to grow closer and closer to Compleat, to notice more and more how fine and straight his shelves remained, despite great structural stress. That sort of moral fortitude is rare in this day and age. By and by, my siblings and I were born and romped on the balconies, raced up and down the splintered ladders, and pored over many encyclopedias and exciting novels. I know just everything about everything - so long as it beings with A through L. ~ Catherynne M Valente

I think I've had the longest career of strength, focus, and still being able to sell records. I think I'm that guy. I'm still blessed with the opportunity to make music and pass out a message like, 'Life is good,' to the world. ~ Nas

Niggas hate what they can't understand, fear what they can't conquer ~ Nas

Here is the mistake of the cut-and-dried man of culture. He goes about with the secret of having learned to appreciate the "grandstyle." He has lived in Homer till he can recall the roll of that many-sounding sea. He has pored over the lofty and pictorial thought of Plato till he begins to pique himself upon its grandeur. His fancy has been fed on the quaint old-world genius of Herodotus, his judgment on the melancholy wisdom of Tacitus and the complacent cynicism of Gibbon
and of all this he is conscious and proud. ~ Richard Holt Hutton

When you look at a guy like a Jay-Z or look at a guy like a Nas, you don't necessarily qualify them as conscious rap purely, although they are extremely conscious of the social inequities that prevail. ~ Michael Eric Dyson

America is a melting pot for all different groups of people, historically. And it's rare that the story of all of these people will be told in the history books. So I always felt I had to find out my history for myself and research my roots. ~ Nas

When you have a daughter, you want to protect her from the things that I've seen out there, you know, the things that's out there that ain't good for her. It's a crazy world we live in. ~ Nas

I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners ~ Nas

I love the art world, I love art galleries, I love what it means - I love art. ~ Nas

Mind's in another world thinking how can we exist through the facts ~ Nas

What an advantage that knowledge can be stored in books! The knowledge lies there like hermetically sealed provisions waiting for the day when you may need a meal. Surely what the Collector was doing as he pored over his military manuals, was proving the superiority of the European way of doing things, of European culture itself. This was a culture so flexible that whatever he needed was there in a book at his elbow. An ordinary sort of man, he could, with the help of an oil-lamp, turn himself into a great military engineer, a bishop, an explorer or a General overnight, if the fancy took him. ~ J.G. Farrell

I think marriage is a beautiful thing. I'm still a supporter of it. ~ Nas

Just sitting in silence is one of the best things a man can do. ~ Nas

I had been through, of course, the divorce and I had been hit with some taxes that really showed me to be careful who's working with you and your money, and you have to be the one that is responsible for your money - you can't trust anyone and I did and I ran into a problem. ~ Nas

Unfortunately, man, a lot of places in America have to deal with unnecessary violence. Somebody like me who knows it firsthand and could relate ... I had a best friend killed, plenty other friends killed. I been through it. I seen it. ~ Nas

Turnin' nothin' into somethin' is God work, and you get nothin' without struggle and hard work ~ Nas

Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined ~ Nas

Act your age don't pretend to be older than you are give yourself time to grow ~ Nas

The sound of the '90s, to me, is a combination of soul and street - it's a feeling. ~ Nas

Use your own intuition. You are tomorrow. ~ Nas

You lose money chasing women;
Never lose women chasing money. ~ Nas

And that's what the problem was – Kitty had finally nailed it. In the six months of Etcetera stories that Kitty had pored over, she now realised she hadn't written a single article that had been an idea of her own. Each story had been proposed by Pete or Cheryl or by somebody else who had enough on their own plate and was unable to write it. She hadn't noticed it happening because she hadn't minded. ~ Cecelia Ahern

Street's disciple, my raps are trifle.
I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle. ~ Nas

Speak what I want, I don't care what y'all feel. 'Cause I'm my own master, my Pop told me be your own boss. Keep integrity at every cost, ~ Nas

You know the block was ill as a youngster
Every night it was like a, cop would get killed body found in the dumpster ~ Nas

Through the lights cameras and action, glamour glitters and gold
I unfold the scroll, plant seeds to stampede the globe ... ~ Nas

I'm never gonna die, never heard of death, energy can never be destroyed only the flesh. ~ Nas

I felt like I could take the responsibility and make the Nas movement bigger and not keep it confined to the Tri-State area, so to speak. He allowed me to do that. When we were together, we made a lot of noise, and I made him an international star. ~ Steve Stoute

Rule No. 1 is you can't be fake. If you're fake, you become a gimmick and you're selling a gimmick; a little gimmick is cool, this is entertainment. But when you base your stuff on mostly real stuff, you never run out of it because every day is a different adventure. ~ Nas

Nas always been my favorite rapper, but 50 Cent, he changed my way of thinking about music 'cause he was so detailed in his music, I knew that wasn't lying. I never felt Tupac that way; I never felt Biggie that way. I love Nas music, but I never felt and believed like, 'This is for real.' 'Cause I grew up that gangsta lifestyle. ~ Schoolboy Q

I'm inspired by people like Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine - you know how racist America was back then - imagine how racism was in South Africa when he had to stand up and say what he had to say. That's bravery beyond comprehension. ~ Nas

The first rappers I ever got into were Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, and Nas. Those are the guys. Those are the dudes that flipped my wig. ~ Action Bronson

Divorce can be crazy. Man, if you're happy ... Love is a beast, man. Hold on. Be prepared for any way it may go, and be honest. ~ Nas

I sip the Dom P watching Gandhi til I'm charged - writing in my book of rhymes, all the words past the margin ~ Nas

Realize, how many classics I gave you/Perhaps if you think back you'll realize that I made you ~ Nas

Your look reflects what's happening in your mind. You gotta have some swag to you. ~ Nas

I've gone through too much, from beefs to divorce to my mom passing which I always expressed in my music, so there's not album that sticks out as more important than the other to me. ~ Nas

I want each album to say something different and be accepted better than the last one but I don't have any point to outdo any particular album of mine. ~ Nas

The things that I have said when I was young and curious about whatever the subject matter was, I respect those - those are growing pains. Even if you make mistakes, I go back to those things, my not-so-great moments because those are my truest moments; those are my human moments. I'm not even mad at the things I said that were a little dicey. ~ Nas

I don't respect killers, I respect O.G. knowledge,
Codes of the streets got new rules, but no guidance.
Lessons, detrimental to a young disciple;
Folks, take care of your brothers, niggas do as I do.
Keep your enemies close, where they can see you.
It's not your enemy who get you, it's always your own people. ~ Nas

We're all Africans, everyone - black, white, yellow. ~ Nas

Don't ever give up on yourself. Keep pushing because the change of guards is what life's all about. You've always got to stick with whatever you're into because you're day is going to come. You're day is destined. If you walk away from that, whether it be from fear or whether you're just giving up. The greatest sin is fear and giving up. ~ Nas