Eminem Quotes His Albums "Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end." - On his album "Infinite was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present myself. It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was like a demo that just got pressed up." - On Infinite "I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit." - On his debut album "I had nothing to lose, but something to gain. If I made an album for me and it was to my satisfaction, then I succeeded. If I didn't, then my producers were going to give up on the whole rap thing we were doing. I made some shit that I wanted to hear. The Slim Shady EP, I lashed out on everybody who talked shit about me." - On the Slim Shady EP "One thing I won’t do is put out another song like 'My Name Is,' his breakthrough hit. 'I can't stand that fucking song' he says. 'This album is rawer. Fans looking for bubblegum rap aren't going to get it here." - On the Slim Shady EP Enemies "To all the people who never gave love, and continue to deny me 'cuz of what I look like: suck my dick you fucks!!!" - On people who are unsupportive "There's a difference between realness and an act, and they're an act, and they know they're an act, and they even say they're an act, they even say they're cornballs, they admit it." - On ICP "I don't think I take the beef as seriously as they do, because I don't consider them artists. They look at me as an artist. I think they get more uptight about it. I can look at them and laugh. They can't do anything to me. What can they do to me? They have no credibility, no respect, no talent, they have nothing. All they can do is diss me vocally, they can't diss me lyrically. There's nothing they can do to me as far as the music goes. I don't take it as seriously as they do and I think that frustrates them. I think it's funny. " - On ICP Family and Friends "Look. I was pissed off!" That's all I could say. I really felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I really wanted to do that shit. For real." - On his wife Kim "My father? I never knew him. Never even seen a picture of him." - On his Dad "My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we're blood." - On his family "It was an honor to hear the words out of Dre's mouth that he liked my shit. Growing up, I was one of the biggest fans of N.W.A, from putting on the sunglasses and looking in the mirror and lip sinking, to wanting to be Dr. Dre, to be Ice Cube. This is the biggest hip-hop producer ever." - On Dr. Dre liking his music "I would never fucking put them in a rhyme. I don't even want them wondering if I was trying to diss them. I got a lot of love for them. I grew up on that shit. The other rappers, whatever. " - On the Beastie Boys Girls "I don't want them once they turn 18." - On Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera "I hate bitches. [One] fucked up, and it made me look at girls as sluts." - On girls "A bunch of girls, swinging from a nice chandelier, landing on top of me naked...while I lay in a pool of steaming hot water!" – A Spring Break fantasy Growing Up "I don't like to give the sob story: growing up in a single-parent home, never knew my father, my mother never worked, and when friends came over I'd hide the welfare cheese. Yo, I failed ninth grade three times, but I don't think it was necessarily 'cause I'm stupid. I didn't go to school. I couldn't deal." .- On his early education "I mean I got jumped, fucked up shit happened to me a few times, but that happens to everybody. I don't think it has anything to do with color or any of that shit. It's just all a part of growing up." - On growing up in the hood "My earliest memory was raping the babysitter when I was 5...she was 15." - On his younger years "Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn't say I lived in a ghetto, I'd say I lived in the 'hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now." - On his childhood "We just kept moving back and forth because my mother never had a job. We kept getting kicked out of every house we were in. I believe six months was the longest we ever lived in a house." - On his childhood "There were times when friends had to buy me fuckin' shoes!" - Being on welfare Hip Hop "Whoever likes my stuff, likes my stuff. But just know Slim Shady is hip-hop. I grew up on hip-hop, it's the music I love and it's the music I respect. I respect the culture...that's me." - On the hip-hop culture Life "I'm not alone in feeling the way I feel. I believe that a lot of people can relate to my shit--whether white, black, it doesn't matter. Everybody has been through some shit, whether it's drastic or not so drastic. Everybody gets to the point of 'I don't give a fuck'." – About his attitude "I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don't do things to shock people. I'm not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don't know how long I'm going to be on this planet. So while I'm here, I might as well make the most of it." - On his philosophy for life Lyrics "If I said in one of my songs that my English teacher wanted to have sex with me in junior high, all I'm saying, is that I'm not gay, you know? People confuse the lyrics for me speaking my mind. I don't agree with that life style, but if that lifestyle is for you, then it's your business." – About his lyrics "A lot of my rhymes are just to get chuckles out of people. Anybody with half a brain is going to be able to tell when I'm joking and when I'm serious." - About his lyrics Race "There was a while when I was feeling like, 'Damn, if I'd just been born black, I would not have to go through all this'." - On his race "I try not to look at it that way. Being white. I don't wake up every day and look in the mirror, 'Oh. I'm white'." - On his race "Unless you want to fuck me, why do you care what I look like?" - On his race "At this point, I'm like "Come up with something new." I hate the same old questions. But it seems like "white" magazines such as Spin and Rolling Stone focus on my "whiteness" more than Black magazines" - On his race "All my life I've been dealing with my race because of where I grew up [Detroit] and being in the rap game. I'm at a boiling point...Anybody who pulls the race card is getting it right back in their face." - On the question of race "I get offended when people say, `So, being a white rapper...and growing up white...after being born white...' It's all I ever hear!" - On the question of race "It's funny how all the magazines can dwell on my race, but they could NEVER say that my shit is whack because they know my shit is tight!" - On magazines Slim Shady "I was takin' a shit. I swear to God. And the fuckin' name just popped into my head. Then I started thinkin' of twenty million things that rhymed with it." - On how he came up with the name Slim Shady (alter ego) "I had this whole Slim Shady concept of being two different people, having two different sides of me. One of them I was trying to let go, and I looked at the mirror and smashed it. That was the whole intro of the Slim Shady EP. Slim Shady was coming to haunt me…" - On his Slim Shady alter ego "Slim Shady is just the evil thoughts that come into my head. Things I shouldn't be thinking about. Not to be gimmicky, but people should be able to determine when I'm serious and when I'm fuckin around. That's why a lot of my songs are funny. I got a warped sense of humor I guess." - On his Slim Shady alter ego "When I was 9 years old, my uncle put me on to the Breakin' soundtrack. The first rap song I ever heard was Ice-T, 'Reckless.' From L.L. to the Fat Boys, and all that shit, I was fascinated. When L.L. first came out with 'I'm Bad', I wanted to do it, to rhyme. Standing in front of the mirror, I wanted to be like L.L." - On his childhood influences Suicide "I took a lot of them, I took a bunch of pain killers - Tylenol. I took 13, 16 of 'em and fuckin' threw 'em up. I thought I was going die, I thought I was going to die for real." - On his suicide attempt Violence "I do promote violence and I don't give a fuck." - In reply to Time Magazine "I grew up listening to 2 Live Crew and N.W.A. and I never went out and shot nobody." - On violence "Saving Private Ryan was probably the illest, sickest movie I've ever watched, and I didn't see anybody criticizing that one for violence." - On violence Miscallenous "You can't control who likes you. If I got Backstreet Boy fans what am I supposed to do? Turn them away? Whoever likes my stuff, likes my stuff but just know Slim Shady is hip hop, I grew up on hip hop, it's the music I love and it's the music I respect. I respect the culture...that's me." – About his fans/hip-hop "It doesn't exactly feel like a shock, but it's all new to me, and I'm taking it in as it comes." - On his rise to fame "Some asshole kept throwing oranges and other fruit at me while I was onstage. Fucker had an arm like a major league pitcher..." - About one of his concerts "I had too much Nyquil and Vivarin again. Lost my stomach all over the place." - Drugs "Never take ecstasy, beer, baccardi, weed, pepto bismol, vivarin, tums, tagamet hb, xanax, and valium in the same day. It makes it difficult to sleep at night." - Drugs "Sometimes I'm real cool, but sometimes I could be a real asshole. I think everyone is like that." - About his attitude "Don't do drugs, don't have unprotected sex, don't be violent. Leave that to me." - Random comment "To the people I forgot, you weren't on my mind for some reason and you probably don't deserve any thanks anyway." – Random comment "I felt like it's my time to shine, I have to rip this. At that time, I felt that it was a life or death situation." - On his debut at The Wake Up Show "Who's Tony Blair, did he get his dick sucked?, oh he ain't shit then..." - On English Prime Minister Tony Blair