With 2014 officially at it's halfway mark, it's only right that we run a quote list of Kanye West. This polarizing hip-hop artist has had a pretty incredible year so far, here are the best things he said.

Previously:  The 25 Best Hip-Hop Albums Of 2014 (So Far) 

Kanye West was the star guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers

 

On Wearing A Mask While Performing During Yeezus Tour

"The mask, it's great, it's freeing. A place where you can express yourself to your audience, to everyone without being judge; to have to live up to whatever your name is supposed to represent. Whatever it means or doesn't mean, to feel like a new artist again."

On The Difference In How He Approaches Fashion And Music

"Everything In the World is exactly the same"

On What He Brings To Fashion

"For me, I give you paintings, sonic paintings. I have Synesthesia, I can see sound in front of me. So when I want to do fashion I just want to give you sculptures"

On The Obstacles He's Trying To Break

"As you get really successful at one thing you start to grow and you feel like you can do more things and your shoe starts to feel a little bit tight. And you do everything you can to get a bigger shoe to walk further and run faster. And people are like, now in this day and age if you don't believe it, 'No Kanye you can't run faster, this is the limit that was made.' The walls that Michael Jackson broke down for you , Jay Z, Russell Simmons broke down for you, this is the end of it. So I'm in the process, in 2013, all the controversy blah blah blah. i'm in the process of breaking down walls that people will understand 10 years from now, 20 years from now."

On Throwing A Wrench In The Matrix Of The Media

"I can care less about these cameras, but where I care about is history, I care about people, I care about you guys getting the best product possible, and I thank you for allowing me to use your platform when you do."

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Kanye West In Interview Magazine

"I just close my eyes and act like I'm a 3-year-old. [laughs] I try to get as close to a childlike level as possible because we were all artists back then."

"The accident gave me the opportunity to do what I really wanted to do. I was a music producer, and everyone was telling me that I had no business becoming a rapper, so it gave me the opportunity to tell everyone, 'Hey, I need some time to recover.' But during that recovery period, I just spent all my time honing my craft and making The College Dropout."

"Dark Fantasy was the first time you heard that collection of sonic paintings in that way. So I had to completely destroy the landscape and start with a new story."

"Yeezus, though, was the beginning of me as a new kind of artist. Stepping forward with what I know about architecture, about classicism, about society, about texture, about synesthesia—the ability to see sound—and the way everything is everything and all these things combine, and then starting from scratch with Yeezus ... That's one of the reasons why I didn't want to use the same formula of starting the album with a track like "Blood on the Leaves," and having that Nina Simone sample up front that would bring everyone in, using postmodern creativity where you kind of lean on something that people are familiar with and comfortable with to get their attention."

"The joke that I've actually played on everyone is that the entire time, I've actually just been a fine artist. I just make sonic paintings, and these sonic paintings have led me to become whatever people think of when you say 'Kanye West.'"

"My mission is very different from Tupac's—and I'm not Tupac. But I think that when I compare myself to Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, or whoever, it's because I'm trying to give people a little bit of context to the possibilities that are in front of me, as opposed to putting me in the rap category that the Grammys has put me in. In no way do I want to be the next any one of them. But I am the first me. So I only mention those other names to try to give people a little bit of context."

"Well, I've got my astronaut family. You know, becoming famous is like being catapulted into space—sometimes without a space suit."

"The first company that has really given me a shot is Adidas. They did the deal ... I mean, Damon Dash did the deal, at the end of the day. He signed Kanye West 12 years ago. What does that mean now? What does that mean to music?"

"People can give you advice ... I met with Deepak Chopra, right? I was supposed to go back the next day, but I told my girlfriend that I wasn't going to go. Because you know what gets me calm, baby? Success. And I went in and finished my Adidas deal instead. I felt so Zen-ed out by that."

"So I hope that there are people out there laughing. Laugh loud, please. Laugh until your lungs give out because I will have the last laugh."

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Kanye West At Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Casino

"There's been some ups and downs. I made some mistakes and I've made some accomplishments. There's only one thing I regret," openly admitted Kanye at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Casino on Feb. 21. "There's only one thing I wish I could change out of everything that's ever happened. I wish that my mother could've met my daughter."

[via The Stashed]

Kanye West At Cannes Lions Festival

 

On Steve Jobs

"Steve Jobs, as everyone knows, was my biggest influence. Just seeing the way he fought to make things easier for people. After he passed, I made it my life's mission to do what he did inside of that company," West said. "I dream to help raise the palate and raise the taste level of a generation and also be involved with the production and distribution and advertising of that thing everyone's begging for."

On Branding

"People are less about the brand and more about self-confidence and how the brands can assist them, similar to what Steve was doing with tech," West said. "This is my goal in lifestyle, in everyday life—to change the idea of what luxury is. Because time is the only luxury. It's not all these brands that we just drove by that are somehow selling our esteem back to us through association."

On Instagram And Imagery

"This is pissing my girl off during the honeymoon," he said. "Annie Leibovitz pulled out right before the wedding—maybe she was scared about the idea of celebrity. … But I still wanted my wedding photos to look like Annie Leibovitz. Now, can you imagine telling someone who just wants to Instagram a photo, the No. 1 person on Instagram, that we need to work on the color of the flowered wall? But the fact that the No. 1 most liked photo has this certain aesthetic on it was a win for what the mission is—of raising the palate."

On Beats

"There would have been no Beats deal without the Samsung deal. It showed the No. 1 company the importance of connecting with culture," said West. "The reason I said I didn't like Samsung particularly is because throughout my entire life, because of how my parents raised me, I have to work with the No. 1. I can't work with anyone but Jay Z, because he's No. 1. I can't be with any girl but Kim, because that's the girl whose pictures I look at the most and get turned on by. I'm not going to represent any company but Louis Vuitton, because that's No. 1. … Samsung is not quite Apple, but it showed that Jimmy [Iovine] and Dre would be able to connect with the No. 1 influencers."

On Cleaning Up The Internet

"The world as a whole is fucking ugly. The Internet as a whole is fucking ugly, too. But I'm not in the construction business," he said. "I said to Kevin [Systrom], why don't you let us redo Instagram? Now, you know, Instagram is nice. It's nice looking. I'm not knocking it. But just in general, everyone spends all of their time looking at their screens or their phones. And just as a simple task, we could clean that up. Right here, in Cannes, right now, we have enough people with the sensibilities and connections to completely make that a more beautiful place," he added. "That is our future. People ask, Where's our future? Where's our flying cars? That is the world that's floating above us right now. And we can make that beautiful with the people in Cannes right now."

For The Stones Throw documentary Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton

“It’s amazing: How could we lose Biggie, Pac, Dilla, Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson? It almost feels like the devil’s winning. We gotta make music and we think, ‘If Dilla was alive, would he like this?’ I have to work on behalf of Dilla. When I put a weird-ass Jamaican sample, it works at first but it’s not until I put the [makes discordant musical noise] that it sounds like art or sounds slightly wrong. And now it’ll go to the radio now that it’s wrong, motherfucker. Now play this. Play this five-minute song that completely fucks up your programming. Play this. It’s best respect that we can pay to great artists that have inspired us so much is to never fuckin’…never sell out.”

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At Kimye's Wedding

“They feel like it’s okay to put you on the tabloid covers to sell your image, to use you in an SNL spoof,” West said. “We don’t negotiate. We’re not like that. We’re not stupid.”

On Spotting A Fan With Fake Yeezys

”These are not real tho”

Kanye West's Quality Of Life Speech In Montréal

"Have you ever felt like on Halloween you can be anyone you wanted to be?"

Kanye West In Newark

“It’s always them magazines trying to pit n****s against one another,” said Yeezy. “So, tonight, it aint none of that. We love Drake.” He continued, “If anything, we gone go after the motherf%#kers writing that negativity. Before they print some shit like that, they need to check with me and him and see if it’s okay before they get ran up in they motherf*#king office. It only const $250[K] to beat your ass,”

Kanye West At Penn State

"You know people used to say, they used to say I like to talk a lot of shit, but i want to clarify that, in 2014. I ain’t talking a whole bunch of shit. I might talk a whole bunch of truth. My truth. I might express myself out loud. Out loud, out loud, out loud…they say it’s not allowed, they say it’s not allowed…they say i’m way too proud…they say yeezy can you calm down…oh not right now."

“What the f*ck did you do? what have you done with the past 10 years of your motherf**king life?” roared Yeezy. “Shut the f*ck Up, Charlamagne! Sway! What have you done? I am Yeezus.”

Kanye West On Future's "I Won"

“I made it over NBA, NFL players. So every time I score it’s like the Super Bowl,”

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Kanye West On 10th Anniversary Of The College Dropout

"The doors may be heavier, but I promise you WE WILL BREAK THEM."

"Ten years later I am still the same kid from Chicago, still dreaming out loud, still banging on the door."

"I wake up every day trying to give something back to you that you can rock to and be proud of."

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