424 Quotes by Russell Simmons

The best way to protect both the policemen and the community going forward is by creating a system that's just, where everyone feels safe.

If you want to say something profound, writing from your heartbeat is different than writing from the loud voices you get from music. If they're rapping from noise, it's about robbing people. It's that simple.

I mean people are sexist and racist and homophobic and violent. But I don't think of the rappers as being any more sexist or racist or homophobic than their parents. Certainly less, in all those cases, less homophobic or racist or sexist, and then less gangster than our government. It's stuff that people normally don't speak on, subjects they don't speak on, and ideas they kind of keep to themselves.

I think that's what made rap such a stable footprint in culture, that it's so honest.

I don't want to appease everyone. It seems very difficult to be steadfast on truth and be a politician.

You don't expect a 94-year-old white guy to pick "Dope," which was an awesome movie not even close to being considered by the Academy. And that's what it's all about, like, promoting people who might not otherwise get promoted and celebrating people who might not get celebrated.

That was never my intention to compete with the Oscars.

The reason I got a break in Hollywood when I moved here a few years ago is my good buddy, who I was on the beach with when he was a publicist, is now the chairman of HBO.

I ask everyone - white Hollywood and black Hollywood - to get outside of your comfort zone and make friends. That's where they're going to learn from each other, and that's where they're going to make better movies and make Hollywood a better place.