Eminem

Rap was my drug.

— Eminem

You could date a stick of dynamite and wouldn't go out with a bang.

— Eminem

I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice. And if you're always the new kid, you never get a chance to adapt, so your confidence is just zilch.

— Eminem

I'll run your brain around the block to jog your fucking memory.

— Eminem

Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can't get it out, I start feeling bad about myself - a lot of self-loathing.

— Eminem

I showered the slang, simple as ABC's / Skip over the D's and rock the microphone with ease (E's).

— Eminem

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I'm learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, 'I can't go to Kmart. I can't take my kids to the haunted house.'

— Eminem

Cause you can be quick, jump the candlestick, burn your back, and fuck Jill on a hill, but you still ain't jack.

— Eminem

Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I'll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I've written a whole song in an hour.

— Eminem

I've got miracle lyrical capability all in me / With the agility to escape a killer bee colony.

— Eminem

I'm very much a creature of habit.

— Eminem

People can try to reinvent themselves. I don't think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you've done up to now.

— Eminem

You bitches get a hysterectomy disrespecting me! You wanna feel the full effect of me? Hand a TEC to me.

— Eminem

Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you're always going to find a hip-hop tape; that's all I buy, that's all I live, that's all I listen to, that's all I love.

— Eminem

My brain's dead weight, I'm tryin' to get my head straight, but I can't figure out which Spice Girl I want to impregnate.

— Eminem

Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places. You may take a rhyme pattern or flow from Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap.

— Eminem

Since age twelve, I've felt like I'm someone else,'cause I hung my original self from the top bunk with a belt.

— Eminem

If there's not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

— Eminem

My English teacher wanted to flunk me in Junior High(Damn)...thanks a lot,next semester I'll be 35...I smacked him in his face with an eraser, chased him with a stapler and told him to change the grade on the paper.

— Eminem

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

— Eminem

99% of my life I was lied to. I just found out my mom does more dope than I do(Damn!). I told her I'd grow up to be a famous rapper, make a record about doing drugs and name it after her (-Oh, thank you!).

— Eminem

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it's like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can't really speak on it, because I wasn't there. I don't feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

— Eminem

All my life I was very deprived, I ain't had a woman in years, and my palms are too hairy to hide (Whoops!).

— Eminem

I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.

— Eminem

I spit when I talk, I'll fuck anything that walks (C'mere). When I was little, I used to get so hungry I would throw fits. How you gonna breast-feed me, ma, you ain't got no tits!

— Eminem

Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert's Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion.

— Eminem

Brain damage ever since the day I was born, drugs is what they used to say I was on. They say I never knew which way I was goin'. But everywhere I go they keep playin' my song.

— Eminem

I didn't have nothin' going for me... school, home... until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

— Eminem

One day he came in the bathroom while I was pissin', and had me in the position to beat me into submission. He banged my head against the urinal till he broke my nose, soaked my clothes in blood, grabbed me and choked my throat.

— Eminem

Trust is hard to come by. That's why my circle is small and tight. I'm kind of funny about making new friends.

— Eminem

You beef with me, I'm gonna even the score equally - take you on Jerry Springer, and beat your ass legally.

— Eminem

So if I said I never did drugs, that would mean I lie and get fucked more than the president does!

— Eminem

Smoke weed, take pills, drop outta school, kill people and drink. Jump behind the wheel like it was still legal!

— Eminem

My middle finger won't go down, how do I wave?

— Eminem

(imitating Norman Bates) Mother, are you there? I love you! I never meant to hit you over the head with that shovel!

— Eminem

Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing.

— Eminem

I'm in the fourth row, signing autographs at your show.

— Eminem

I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit.

— Eminem

I just remembered that I'm absent minded... wait, I mean I lost my mind, I can't find it.

— Eminem

Got bitches on my jock out in East Detroit, cause they think that I'm a motherfucking Beastie Boy.

— Eminem

I'm buzzin, Dirty Dozen, naughty rotten rhymer, cursin at you players worse than Marty Schottenheimer

— Eminem

You ain't gonna sell two copies if you press a double album.

— Eminem

My name is Marshall Mathers, I'm an alcoholic (Hi Marshall), I have a disease and they don't know what to call it.

— Eminem

You'll get knocked the fuck out like Mike Tyson! The proof is in the pudden, just ask DeShaun Holton, I'll slit your motherfucking throat worse than Ron Goldman!

— Eminem

Slim Shady, Eminem was the old initials.

— Eminem

Extortion, snortin, supportin abortion, pathological liar, blowin shit out of proportion, the looniest, zaniest, spontaneous, sporadic, impulsive thinker, compulsive drinker, addict, half animal, half man, dumpin your dead body inside of a fuckin trash can, with more holes than an Afghan

— Eminem

They threw me out the Ramada Inn, I said: 'It wasn't me, I got a twin! Oh my god it's you, not again!'

— Eminem

Just trying to buy me some time, then I remembered this magic trick - [vocalizes the Inspector Gadget theme song], Go-Go-Gadget-Dick!

— Eminem

I like happy things, I'm really calm and peaceful. I like birds, bees, I like people. I like funny things that make me happy and gleeful... like when my teacher sucked my wee-wee in pre-school!

— Eminem

I try to keep it positive and play it cool, shoot up the playground and tell the kids to stay in school.

— Eminem

I listen to your demo tape and act like I don't like it, six months later you hear your lyrics on my shit.

— Eminem

Say there's a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter - for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that's saying is that he's living a fantasy life of rebellion.

— Eminem

Remember me? I'm the one who burned your house down/But I'm out now/And this time I'm coming back to blow your house up/And I ain't gonna leave you with a window to jump out of!/Give me two fat tabs and three shrooms/And you won't see me like fat people in steam rooms/And when I'm going to hell and I'm getting ready to leave/I'ma put air in a bag and charge people to breathe!

— Eminem

I can't change the way I am … but if I offended you, good. Cause I still don't give a fuck.

— Eminem

Fuck a needle, here's a sword, body pierce with this.

— Eminem

I'm ducked the fuck down while I'm writin this rhyme, cause I'm probably gonna get struck with lightning this time.

— Eminem

I walked into a gunfight with a knife to kill you, and cut you so fast when your blood spilled it was still blue.

— Eminem

I don't rap to get the women, fuck bitches. Give me a fat slut that cooks and does dishes.

— Eminem

Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds, it's like adrenaline: The pain is such a sudden rush for me!

— Eminem

How many retards'll listen to me and run up in the school shootin' when they're pissed at the teacher? "Her? Him? Is it you? Is it them?" "Wasn't me, Slim Shady said to do it again!"

— Eminem

And Dr. Dre said … nothing, you idiots! Dr. Dre's dead, he's locked in my basement!

— Eminem

Will Smith don't got to cuss in his raps to sell records. Well, I do, so fuck him and fuck you too!

— Eminem

A lot of people ask me, stupid fucking questions. A lot of people think that what I say on records, or what I talk about on a record, that I actually do in real life. Or, that I believe in it. Or, if I say that, I want to kill somebody, that I'm actually gonna do it, or that I believe in it. Well, shit. If you believe that, then I'll kill you. Do you know why? Because I'm a criminal!

— Eminem

And I am, whatever you say I am. If I wasn't, then why would I say I am? In the paper, the news everyday I am. Radio won't even play my jam. 'Cause I am, whatever you say I am. If I wasn't, then why would I say I am? In the paper, the news everyday I am. I don't know, it's just the way I am

— Eminem

And all of this controversy circles me, and it seems like the media immediately points a finger at me; so I point one back at 'em, but not the index or pinky or the ring or the thumb. It's the one you put up when you don't give a fuck, when you won't just put up with the bullshit they pull, 'cause they're full of shit too.

— Eminem

Oops, I did it again, didn't I? My shit's harder to figure out than what Britney's tit size is.

— Eminem

If I could capture the rage of todays youth and bottle it, crush the glass from my bare hands and swallow it. then spit it back in the faces, of you racists and hypocrites who thinks the same shit, but don't say shit.

— Eminem

I make music to make you sick of fake music — hate music like devil worshippin' Satan music. So say your prayers — your Hail Mary's and Jesuses. Take two sticks, tape 'em together and make a crucifix.

— Eminem

I maybe made some mistakes, but I'm only human. But, I'm man enough to face 'em today. What I did was stupid, no doubt it was dumb. But, the smartest shit I did was take the bullets out of that gun. Because I'd have killed them. Shit, I'd have shot Kim and them both. It's my life, I'd like to welcome you all to 'The Eminem Show'.

— Eminem

I love my fans, but no one ever puts a grasp on the fact I've sacrificed everything I have. I never dreamt I'd get to the level that I'm at. This is whack, this is more than I ever coulda asked. Everywhere I go, a hat, a sweater hood or mask, what about math, how come I wasn't ever good at that? It's like the boy in the bubble who never could adapt. I'm trapped, if I could go back, I never would've rapped.

— Eminem

Moby? You can get stomped by Obie! You 36-year-old bald headed fag, blow me. You don't know me; you're too old. Let go, it's over. Nobody listens to techno!

— Eminem

If I'm such a fucking menace? This shit doesn't make sense, B! It's all political. If my music is literal, then I'm a criminal. How the FUCK can I raise a little girl? I couldn't, I wouldn't be fit to.

— Eminem

What, you're tryin' to be my new wife? What're you, Mariah? Fly through twice!

— Eminem

I've never loved you enough to trust you, we just met and I just fucked you!

— Eminem

Put anthrax on your Tampax and slap you 'till you can't stand! Girl, you just blew your chance, don't mean to ruin your plans!

— Eminem

My song can make you cry, take you by surprise. At the same time, can make your dry your eyes with the same rhyme. See what you're seeing is a genius at work, which to me isn't work, so it's easy to misinterpret it at first.

— Eminem

More pain inside of my brain than in the eyes of a little girl inside of a plane aimed at the World Trade!

— Eminem

'Cause sometimes you feel tired, feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up. But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength and just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up and not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.

— Eminem

Music is like magic. There's a certain feeling you get when you real and you spit and people are feelin' your shit."

— Eminem

This is your moment, and every single minute you spend tryin' to hold on to it, cuz you may never get it again; so while you're in it try to get as much shit as you can and when your run is over just admit when it's at its end.

— Eminem

A plaque and platinum status iIs whack if I’m not the baddest."

— Eminem

Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it, or just let it slip?

— Eminem

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo

— Eminem

Let the president answer a higher anarchy. Strap him with an AK-47, let him go, fight his own war. Let him impress daddy that way. No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil.

— Eminem

You find me offensive? I find you offensive, for finding me offensive.

— Eminem

Their loyalty to us is worth more than any award it.

— Eminem

We're all we got in this world, When it spins, when it swirls, When it whirls, when it twirls, Two little beautiful girls.

— Eminem

But then of course everything always happens for a reason I guess it was never meant to be. But it's just something we have no control over and that's what destiny is.

— Eminem

I said nice rectum, I had a vasectomy, Hector, so you won't get pregnant if I bisexually wreck ya"

— Eminem

If you could count the skeletons in my closet, under my bed and up under my faucet, then you would know I've completely lost it. Is he nuts? No he's insane!

— Eminem

You can be a permanent fixture in my lyrical mixture.

— Eminem

Better try to stay wide awake, or you might end up found dead by the lake.

— Eminem

Maybe just an ice cold brew what's a beer, that's the devil in my ear, I've been sober a fucking year and that fucker still talks to me, he’s all I can fuckin' hear "Marshall, come on, we'll watch the game, it's the Cowboys and Buccaneers!"

— Eminem

Alot of people ask me... Where the fuck I've been at the last few years? Shit, I don't know... But I do know I'm back now!

— Eminem

Nobody asked for life to deal us with these bullshit hands we´re dealt. We gotta take these cards ourselves and flip ém, don´t expect no help!

— Eminem

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

— Eminem

The truth is you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.

— Eminem

Wack job in the back with a black stocking cap/Jacking off to a hockey mask in a boxing match

— Eminem

How many people you know who can name every serial killer who ever existed in a row?

— Eminem

Must Be The Ganja

— Eminem

I stuck my dick in this game like a rapist. They call me 'Slim Roethlisberger'!

— Eminem

Now get off my dick, dick's too short of a word for my dick, get off my antidisestablishmentarianism you prick

— Eminem

Ya'll are Eminem backwards, you're mini-mes

— Eminem

The emotions in a song - the anger, aggression - have got to be legitimate.

— Eminem

And love is "evol"; spell it backwards. I'll show you.

— Eminem

I'd shoot for the moon, but I'm too busy gazing at stars.

— Eminem

And like a 'Fuck You' for Christmas, his gift is a curse.

— Eminem

You know, fame is a funny thing, man, especially, you know, actors, musicians, rappers, rock singers, it's kind of a lifestyle and it's easy to get caught up in it - you go to bars, you go to clubs, everyone's doing a certain thing... It's tough.

— Eminem

You could try and read my lyrics off of this paper before I lay them. But, you won't take the sting out of these words before I say them.

— Eminem

I told the world one day I would pay it back, say it on tape, lay it, so that one day i could play it back.

— Eminem

I'm beginning to feel like a Rap God, Rap God. All my people from the front to the back nod, back nod.

— Eminem

My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we're blood.

— Eminem

Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert's Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion.

— Eminem

I'd go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

— Eminem

You know, fame is a funny thing, man, especially, you know, actors, musicians, rappers, rock singers, it's kind of a lifestyle and it's easy to get caught up in it - you go to bars, you go to clubs, everyone's doing a certain thing... It's tough.

— Eminem

Ultimately, who you choose to be in a relationship with and what you do in your bedroom is your business.

— Eminem

I'd go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

— Eminem

Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing.

— Eminem

Trust is hard to come by. That's why my circle is small and tight. I'm kind of funny about making new friends.

— Eminem

I try to treat all the money I'm making like it's the last time I'm going to make it.

— Eminem

I come from Detroit where it's rough and I'm not a smooth talker.

— Eminem

Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.

— Eminem

I don't even know how to speak up for myself, because I don't really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

— Eminem

It sometimes feels like a strange movie, you know, it's all so weird that sometimes I wonder if it is really happening.

— Eminem

Honestly, I'd love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I'm doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I'm doing.

— Eminem

When 'Paul's Boutique' came out, I was one of the fans that didn't get it.

— Eminem

It'd be stupid for me to sit here and say that there aren't kids who look up to me, but my responsibility is not to them. I'm not a baby sitter.

— Eminem

Five or six songs leaked from the original version of 'Encore.' So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them.

— Eminem

Certainly I'm not going to sit on the Internet all day and read what Sam from Iowa is saying about me. But I'm a sponge. I've always been a sponge.

— Eminem

The details surrounding both my marriage and subsequent filing for divorce are private, and I had hoped to keep them that way for the sake of my family.

— Eminem

There was certainly, like, a rebellious, like, youthful rage in me. And there was also the fact of no getting away from fact that I am white, and you know, this is predominantly black music, you know.

— Eminem

I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I'm going to grow artistically.

— Eminem

I feel like a spoilt rapper. I get to pick and choose everything.

— Eminem

I'd go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

— Eminem

As for my stuff, I'm just doing guest verses for other people's records. I try to stay recording, because if I don't, I get rusty.

— Eminem

When you're a little kid, you don't see color, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to rap.

— Eminem

I didn't have nothin' going for me... school, home... until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

— Eminem

I always try to be smart. I try to treat all the money I'm making like it's the last time I'm going to make it.

— Eminem

My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we're blood.

— Eminem

The kids are old enough now - I just want to let them be kids. I don't want to comment on them too much. They're at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

— Eminem

It creeps me out sometimes to think of the person I was. I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.

— Eminem

I might talk about killing people, but that doesn't mean I do it.

— Eminem

You know, not to sound corny or nuthin', but I felt like a fighter comin' up, man. I felt like, you know, I'm being attacked for this reason or that reason, and I gotta fight my way through this.

— Eminem

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I'm going through or what's going on in my life at that moment.

— Eminem

Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.

— Eminem

Now that I understand that I'm an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

— Eminem

I felt like I had a really bad case of writer's block... Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can't get it out, I start feeling bad about myself - a lot of self-loathing.

— Eminem

I was born with the biggest middle finger on Earth.

— Eminem

When Bugs Bunny walks into rehab, people are going to turn and look. People at rehab were stealing my hats and pens and notebooks and asking for autographs. I couldn't concentrate on my problem.

— Eminem

Bitch, I ain't no fucking G, I'm a cannibal! I ain't trying to shoot you, I'm trying to chop you into pieces and eat you!

— Eminem

I don't think I've ever read poetry, ever. I'm not really book-smart.

— Eminem

If you was bleach and I was hair, I wouldn't die (dye) fo' ya'!

— Eminem

It feels good to have your work respected again.

— Eminem

If I'm garbage you're a bunch of maggots

— Eminem

I stopped watching TV because of 'The Wire.' Like, 'The Wire' ruined everything for me because I don't even want to watch anything else now.

— Eminem

See I'm a poet to some, a regular modern day Shakespeare

— Eminem

I don't know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it.

— Eminem

Had a dream, I was king, I woke up, still king.

— Eminem

The kids are old enough now - I just want to let them be kids. I don't want to comment on them too much. They're at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

— Eminem

My rhyming skills got you climbing hills, I'll travel through your mind into your spine like siren drills.

— Eminem

The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can't really explain - let's just say it's all I can really do while I'm doing it.

— Eminem

My pen and paper cause a chain reaction, to get your brain relaxing.

— Eminem

Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism.

— Eminem

You couldn't make the fans throw up their hands if they swallowed their fingers.

— Eminem