Rza

“The influence of the Shaw Brothers films on my work has been profound. In addition to the richness of Asian culture, we at Wu-Tang were fascinated with the struggles between the oppressed Chinese villagers and the repressive Manchu authority and how it mirrored our own experiences growing up as black kids in America's inner cities.”

“Wu-Tang Clan's first album, '36 Chambers,' there wasn't a lot of money given to make that album.”

“A wise man has to always listen to the peers he surrounds around himself. That's why you surround yourself with other smart people. Captain Kirk keep Mr. Spock right beside him.”

“I love the Bee Gees, and I love Barry Gibb and Andy Gibb. I listen to them almost every day.”

“I always argue with a lot of people. They ask me for my top rappers, and he's always on my list. I mean, the GZA inspired me.”

“I didn't discover how music and film could work together until Jim Jarmusch had me do 'Ghost Dog.'”

“A servant sometimes need to be served.”

“'Rainy Dayz' and 'Glaciers of Ice,' those two songs - I mean, I just love those songs.”

“It brings me joy to hear that people are laughing at my scene in 'Due Date.'”

“I love Paul Simon... his lyrics.”

“I'm a big fan of technology; I've been a geek since 1986... and I was spending all my paper money on gadgets.”

“The 'Godfather I' and 'II,' those were real straight movies in my life. At the same time, so is 'Five Deadly Venoms,' if we go into kung-fu movies.”

“When you prepare for something, it's like jumping into cold water, but you're prepared. You jump in. And you start swimming, or if you don't swim, you drown.”

“As I grew older and got into the late teens and early 20s, I wanted to be a voice of the people. You know, getting locked up all the time and going through so much oppression and seeing it all around myself, I wanted to be a voice for it.”

“To me, Wu-Tang is beyond Wu-Tang Clan... It's just like, hip-hop is beyond Grandmaster Flash, but Grandmaster Flash was one of the first guys to hit those turntables like that. The same thing with Wu-Tang. You'll see the difference in hip-hop from the moment we came in to before we came in. We changed it. We changed the whole structure.”

“My mom gave me the children stories of the Bible. I memorized that book at the age of nine.”

“I got a bad habit of creating.”

“I'm me, and the me that's me is me and is going to continue to be me, and it's always reaching and growing.”

“You come to my studio, it says 'No photography on premises.' I picked that up from Kanye. We don't need all that. In the old days in the Wu, we didn't allow anybody in the studio, not even women. We didn't start allowing women until five years after our debut. ODB used to get mad.”

“The way you have to think in chess is good for everyday thinking, really, especially for brothers in the urban community who never take that second look, never take that second thought.”