Quotes on Could

In hindsight, if I could go back in time and relay a message to my younger self, I would tell him to work on his time keeping, and that the job of a drummer is not to be the one that gets noticed the most on stage, or to be the fastest, or the loudest. Above all, it is to be the timekeeper.

I could always imagine more interesting places to be than where I was. And more interesting people than me being there. Eventually, this led to making up stories and writing things down.

All of the characters at Marvel were my ideas, but the ideas meant nothing unless I had somebody who could illustrate it.

We're talking about, essentially, the Roman historians, who wrote Cleopatra into the story mostly so that they could talk about the rise of Rome. And that is one of the problems, of course, in recounting her life. She's only ever apparent to us when there is a Roman in the room, or when her story intersects with the rise of Rome.

Swimming is a life-saving skill, so just the fact that the sport that I love can give so much back to other people - and inspire them to join something that they never thought they could do or go after their dreams - is something that is really special to me.

I believe the biggest breakthroughs on cancer could come from brilliant researchers based in India.

Adults who loved and knew me, on many occasions sat me down and told me that I was black. As you could imagine, this had a profound impact on me and soon became my truth. Every friend I had was black; my girlfriends were black. I was seen as black, treated as black, and endured constant overt racism as a young black teenager.

I've never been willing to lie about my age. Why on earth would I want to tell people I'm 35, which I'm not, and have them say, 'Oh that's nice,' when I could tell them I'm 47, which I am, and have them look at me and go, 'Whoa!'. I'm not afraid of aging. I stopped being afraid of life a long time ago.

In the business world, I did fairly well, but wasn't happy. A bout of sciatica put me flat on my back. All I could do was read, listen to my mother's stories about the Sandovals, and daydream: a return to self. My writing career had begun.

I could never be a control freak. If Wu-Tang is a dictatorship, how does every Wu-Tang member have their own contract, their own career, and have put out more albums without me than they've done with me?

If I had any talent that God could give me, I would be a great diva.

People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.

When I was in Switzerland, I still had the fantasy I could have saved my parents and family if I'd stayed in Germany. All nonsense. If they had not made the sacrifice to send their only child to Switzerland, I wouldn't be alive.

Oh, I'm impressed with Lorraine Hansberry. She was a genius at whose feet I could sit.

Baboons who have friends do much better in terms of their physiology. And if that applies to a baboon, it could certainly apply for a human.

World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.

A lot of people wish they could be in the house with the greatest of anything. I just so happened to live across the hall from absolutely, positively the greatest women's basketball player ever.

Clothes are only completed when somebody actually wears them. If they were art, they could be more abstract. As long as something is new and has never been seen before, I don't mind if people call it art. Wear them if you dare.

I never went to fashion school. I didn't know what a designer was. I knew I had something, but I didn't know what it was. And it could just have easily been nothing.

For more and more of us, home has really less to do with a piece of soil than, you could say, with a piece of soul. If somebody suddenly asks me, 'Where's your home?' I think about my sweetheart or my closest friends or the songs that travel with me wherever I happen to be.

There are other players who were more talented, but there is no one who could out-prepare me.