Damon Dash

“Being independent is everything. That's all I know.”

“I don't think my success or me having the opportunity to have success is from our generation. I think it's from the generations before us. I think it's the fact that people like Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers and people like that fought for us to have the freedom to do and say what we want and have the opportunity to make money.”

“My thing is to have a good, profitable company, for it to be 100% owned independently.”

“Everything that scared me is losing people I love, and everyone that I really love, as it relates to females, I've lost. So what it's made me be is the animal that I am because I don't want to sit down and think about the things that are hurting me, but, you know.”

“I have been diabetic since I was young.”

“We not from Hollywood, so I'm not playing Hollywood's game.”

“You're only the boss if you put up your own money.”

“When I had daughters, I realized that I wouldn't never do anything to a girl that I wouldn't want done to my own daughter.”

“I want to be as creative as I want. I don't ever want to have to compromise; I don't ever want anybody ever to tell me what to do, I don't ever want to argue with somebody because of my vision.”

“In urban culture, Larry Davis is something of a legend.”

“If I have an accountant that just reports I just invested $10 million in my business, and he doesn't exactly itemize where every cost goes, it gives a flag to the government. They want to make sure that the reason I'm not paying taxes is because I'm reinvesting in these businesses and not trying to hide stuff.”

“I fire lawyers frequently.”

“How can another man call another man boss? That's like calling another man 'Daddy.'”

“I never really considered myself super hip-hop, ever in life. I don't think anything that I've done reflects that.”

“I try to get to the gym at least three to four times a week.”

“Those people are corny. You think I'm rolling to a club with Lyor Cohen or John Meneilly?”

“You do something when you're 20, and you're still paying for it when you're 40.”

“It's important to be enlightened.”

“I never had to ask Def Jam for anything.”

“Lee Daniels, even though he owes me $2 million, I picked that. I put him in business.”