The Hollywood Reporter, April 13, 2018:
VERVOORDT I don't know, I never even thought about it because I live now, as in now, the past, the future is present. Why should I want to live in another time period?
WEST Yeah. … Really big, be here now, now be here. I go to an extreme. I've got this new concept that I've been diggin' into. I'm writing a philosophy book right now called Break the Simulation. And I've got this philosophy — or let's say it's just a concept because sometimes philosophy sounds too heavy-handed. I've got a concept about photographs, and I'm on the fence about photographs — about human beings being obsessed with photographs — because it takes you out of the now and transports you into the past or transports you into the future. It can be used to document, but a lot of times it overtakes [people]. People dwell too much in the memories. People always wanna hear the history of something, which is important, but I think it there's too much of an importance put on history. One of the things that I thought was interesting was how far people go in the past when you're working on clothing. There's people who will go and reference something from the 1920s or reference something from the '40s, especially dealing with sportswear. My sports wear is athletic wear. I was working with a guy named David Casavant and we were looking at a jogging pant from the 1940s and we were looking at a jogging pant from the 1980s, and I thought it was interesting that he refused to go all the way back to the '40s as a reference, that he wanted to keep the references close to now, to be here now. So I'm not saying that, you know, it's bad to go all the way back. (Laughs.)
Reuters, May 26, 2009:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rapper Kanye West does not read books or respect them but nevertheless, he has written one that he would like you to buy and read.
Entertainer Kanye West (L) and co-author of the book "Thank You and You're Welcome," Sakiya Sandifer, pose for a portrait while promoting the book in New York May 22, 2009. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
The Grammy Award winner, known for his No. 1 albums and outspoken statements on everything from racism in America to the banality of Twitter, is the co-author of “Thank You And You’re Welcome.”
His book is 52 pages — some blank, others with just a few words — and offers his optimistic philosophy on life. One two-page section reads, “Life is 5% what happens and 95% how you react!” Another page reads “I hate the word hate!”
“This is a collection of thoughts and theories,” West, 31, said in an interview about his spiral-bound volume, which was written with J. Sakiya Sandifer.
West said he put his thoughts in a book because “I get paraphrased and misquoted all the time.” He calls his wisdom “Kanye-isms.”
“My favorite one is ‘Get used to being used,’” he said.
“I feel like to misuse, overuse or abuse someone is negative. To use is necessary and if you can’t be used, then you are useless.”
So does he fancy himself a modern-day Confucius?
“I’m trying to end the confusion,” he said, laughing and adding, “I’m gonna put that on the next album.”
West’s derision of books comes despite the fact that his late mother, Donda West, was a university English professor before she retired to manage his music career. She died in 2007 of complications following cosmetic surgery.
“Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed,” West said. “I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book’s autograph.
“I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life,” he said.
West, a college dropout, said being a non-reader was helpful when he wrote his book because it gave him “a childlike purity.”
Twitter, April 27, 2018:
I haven't done enough research on conservatives to call myself or be called one. I'm just refusing to be enslaved by monolithic thought.— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 27, 2018
Vox, May 2, 2018:
During a Tuesday appearance on TMZ Live, the rapper talked about his relationship with President Donald Trump and mused on a number of different subjects. Then he made a claim that was shocking even for him.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years — for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West told the TMZ newsroom. “Like, you were there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all?”
“It’s like we’re mentally imprisoned,” he added.
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