I act like sh*t don`t phase me, inside it drives me crazy, my insecurities could eat me alive.

It`d be stupid for me to sit here and say that there aren`t kids who took up to me, but my responsibility is not to them. I`m not a baby sitter.

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 lifestyle, but if that lifestyle is for you, then it`s your business. --On homosexuality.

I was poor white trash, no glitter, no glamour, but I`m not ashamed of anything.

My thing is this; if I`m sick enough to think it, then I`m sick enough to say it.

Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert`s Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion.

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`.

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.

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! --On his spring break fantasy

When you`re a little kid, you don`t see color, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to rap.

I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I`m going to grow artistically.

It sometimes feels like a strange movie, you know, it`s all so weird that sometimes I wonder if it is really happening.

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 influences.

I don`t like rap anyways, I`m just trying to get my porno career started.

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`.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it`s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can`t really speak on it, because I wasn`t there. I don`t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

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`.

Fame hit me like a ton of bricks.

My only scheme was to be a rapper.

If there`s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

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.

Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you`re always going to find a hip-hop tape; that`s all I buy, that`s all I live, that`s all I listen to, that`s all I love.

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There`s no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

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.

I might talk about killing people, but that doesn`t mean I do it.

Though I`m not the first king of controversy, I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley, to do Black Music so selfishly and use it to get myself wealthy.

(On if he let`s his daughter listen to his music) Yeah, I do. Not all of it I play for her. Some songs, got a lot of cussing, especially the one she`s on. So I make her a clean version. `Cause I protect my Child! Not yours! Rest of the kids I don`t care about - buy my album, go murder, rape, pillage, kill!"

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.

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.

Somewhere deep down there`s a decent man in me, he just can`t be found.

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They`re only powerful when you got your back turned.

These times are so hard, and they`re getting even harder.

To the people I forgot, you weren`t on my mind for some reason and you probably don`t deserve any thanks anyway.

Say there`s a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter - for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that`s saying is that he`s living a fantasy life of rebellion.

I`d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.

My father? I never knew him. Never even seen a picture of him.

A lot of truth is said in jest.

I had too much NyQuil and Vivarin again. Lost my stomach all over the place.

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 lipsinking, to wanting to be Dr. Dre, to be Ice Cube. This is the biggest hip-hop producer ever.

I need drama in my life to keep making music.

I am who I am and I say what I think. I`m not putting a face on for the record.

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 don`t hate women - they just sometimes make me mad.

Anybody with a sense of humour is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.

I come from Detroit where it`s rough and I`m not a smooth talker.

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.

I`m stupid, I`m ugly, I`m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I`m stupid?

Saving Private Ryan was probably the illest, sickest movie I`ve ever watched, and I didn`t see anybody criticizing that one for violence.

Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism.

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, was coming to haunt Eminem.

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

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 stardom.

I remember once when I was 16 he came to my house, we were living on the east side of 8 mile, he came over with a brand new pair of shoes and he threw them at my feet and said `Put those on`, and I said `why`? He said `Because I`m tired of you wearing them dirty ass shoes` His eulogy on the late Proof

(On his Oscar and why he didn`t go to the show) "I`m thankful for it, I`m not ungrateful. I`m very grateful. I just don`t choose to rub elbows with the whole Hollywood scene. It`s not me. If there is just one award show you don`t go to you gonna look ungrateful. Period. But me, I just don`t like to go to places where I feel outta my element. And me sitting there with a bunch of movie stars and actors, I don`t belong. I rap and do hip-hop, the music that I love. I`m about the music. The grammy`s are about as far as I`m goin` go outside my element. It`s still cool that I got it."

The truth is you don`t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.

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.

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.

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.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn`t, then why would you say I am.

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 alter-ego, Slim Shady.

I don`t have to say anything to my fans about my music and try to explain it, because they get it, and that`s why they are fans, do you know what I mean?

I always wished for this, but it`s almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream.

I grew up listening to 2 Live Crew and N.W.A. and I never went out and shot nobody.

"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."

"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!"

"Sometimes I`m real cool, but sometimes I could be a real asshole. I think everyone is like that."

"Don`t do drugs, don`t have unprotected sex, don`t be violent. Leave that to me."

"My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we`re blood." --On his family

"I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit."

"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

"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"

"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 colour

"I don`t want them once they turn 18" - On Britney Spears & Christina Aguilera