Wyclef Jean's Quotes

Coming from Haiti and growing up in Brooklyn, there's a lot of European influence when I get dressed up. I wear a lot of fitted suits, elegant cuts; I think it's cool to mash up a lot of different looks.

I always want to know what's wrong with you, why you ain't smiling. That's just my character; I just love people and want to see people having a good time.

I know that the nice shines I have on is going to pass. The nice cars will pass. All that will stay is the music and the work. That's where I get the inspiration to help people out and work.

That's the best way to feed the human mind. That's how Bob Marley did it. He never put it in your face. After you got the groove, you were just singing the hooks, because you thought it was cool.

When you enter the realm of politics, you don't enter it because you want to be popular. When I want to be popular, I pull on a guitar and sing a song.

With Yele Haiti, the first thing was I'm proud of the organization and the work that the organization has done, and in the future hope to continue doing.

Bob Marley stood for universal peace and love. He tried to break racial barriers.

I feel that life is short, so we should be disciplined, but at the same time we should have a good time.

All that violence in the world, we need to stop that.

I'm cheap, and I'm proud of it!

My grandfather was a voodoo priest. A lot of my life dealt with spirituality. I can close my eyes and remember where I come from.

There's not a hip-hop artist that didn't snatch of piece of Bob Marley. It's totally impossible.

When I'm rhyming it's all in my head... Like the slaves, when they were picking cotton, they would block out their minds. They would sing.

You get quick money, it's beautiful, there's sunshine, but at the end of the day, you find out it's all a masquerade, baby. It's not what it seems.

Me and my father went through a war period where we wasn't talking. He wanted me to go to theology school - I didn't want to go. I wanted to do music. I told him I was a minister through music.

Every generation is gonna keep changing, and you just have to embrace the change.

Haiti is my country. The same way the Beatles are received in England - that's how Wyclef Jean is received in Haiti, do you know what I mean?

I do music for the love of it, and I've been doing it from a very young age: about 11.

I like to go against the grain, against what's out there. Every day is like a challenge.

I want people to experience what it's like being from Haiti, coming to America, being Wyclef - multicultural, multilingual.

I want to be part of a different kind of celebrity, one that thinks not just about charity but policy.

I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.

I'm like Cab Calloway: I love the entertainment, and I've loved entertaining people ever since I was little.

I'm the hip-hop Quincy Jones of today.

It was important that I became successful. People say they do it for the love, and yes, you do it for the love, but you want to be successful.

My parents were Christian.