I grew up in Tennessee, and if you didn't play football, you were a sissy. I got slurs all the time because I was in music and art...I was an outcast in a lot of ways...but everything that you get picked on for or you feel makes you weird is essentially what's going to make you sexy as an adult.

Justin Timberlake

I believe people can move things with their minds.

Justin Timberlake

believe people moving

True leadership is when you are willing to risk your power and voice so that all of ours can be heard.

Justin Timberlake

risk voice heard

You cannot make a difference unless you're different.

Justin Timberlake

making-a-difference differences different

You're not meant to do what's easy, you're meant to challenge yourself.

Justin Timberlake

challenge-yourself challenges easy

The most boring thing in the world? Silence.

Justin Timberlake

silence quiet world

If you put out 150 percent, then you can always expect 100 percent back. That's what I was always told as a kid, and It's worked for me so far!

Justin Timberlake

percent ifs kids

The gray area, the place between black and white - that's the place where life happens.

Justin Timberlake

black-and-white life believe

Yesterday is history

Justin Timberlake

yesterday-is-history tomorrow yesterday

There was a point in my teenage years, when we were starting to play bigger shows and females were running after tour buses and all that, and my mom - and I remember this like it was yesterday - said: 'Look, I want you to know that I couldn't be prouder of you. You are extraordinary. You move people. But it doesn't make you better than them. You still put your pants on the same way as them, one leg at a time every morning.' I thought about learning to jump right into them, just to mess with her. But what she said stuck with me, and I think it's true.

Justin Timberlake

mom running morning

I pick my nose and I'm not ashamed to admit it. If there's a bogey then just pick it, man.

Justin Timberlake

ashamed noses men

The best part about being alone is that you really don't have to answer to anybody. You do what you want.

Justin Timberlake

hilarious feeling-alone being-alone

Your critics do not count. Their words will fade. You won't.

Justin Timberlake

fades critics

We have a couple of rules in our relationship. The first rule is that I make her feel like she's getting everything. The second rule is that I actually do let her have her way in everything. And, so far, it's working.

Justin Timberlake

marriage couple way

Sexy, to me, is the way you carry what you have. I have a big nose, but I rock it.

Justin Timberlake

rocks sexy noses

The teachers that we actually learn more from are the ones that taught us life lessons more than trigonometry. And they have such a huge responsibility and they're under-appreciated and underpaid. So that's my opinion of teachers.

Justin Timberlake

life-lesson responsibility teacher

I'm a very melody-driven writer and I have a rule that I don't write anything down because if I can't remember the melody than it wasn't worth remembering. So it's my way to test myself in the studio. When I was a kid I could sing pretty well so melody always made a lot of sense to me.

Justin Timberlake

tests writing kids

All you can do as an artist is do what you think is an extension of you. You put down on paper ... who you are. That's what being an artist is all about. And when it gets done, you don't look back at it and say, Oh, I could have done that better.

Justin Timberlake

artist looks thinking

I'm very thankful to be doing what I'm doing. I feel very blessed.

Justin Timberlake

thankfulness blessed inspirational

Listen, I'm not cool. Being cool is about keeping your blood pressure steady. So no. Don't be cool. Be passionate. Be dedicated. Be tenacious. Be uncompromising. Be pissed. Be happy. Be sad.

Justin Timberlake

passionate pressure blood

If you can answer the question of why you’re doing it, it’s the right thing to do.

Justin Timberlake

things-to-do ifs answers