Kanye West
SAIC Commencement Lecture
I am a pop artist. So my medium is public opinion and the world is my canvas

'I’m sorry' is something that you can use a lot. It gives you the opportunity to give your opinion, apologize for it, and give your opinion again. People say 'You shouldn't have to be sorry for your opinions ...' George Bush ... has some very cool self portraits. I didn't know he was an artist!

I felt my nerves a bit, and I don’t feel that feeling a lot. The nerves of humility and modesty when being honored, a humanization of a reality of being recognized. And all I thought as I sat there [in the audience Monday], kind of shaking a little bit, is I need to get rid of that feeling, I need to not be nervous

This honor is going to make your lives easier, for two reasons: You don’t have to defend me as much! And I’m going to make all of our lives easier. It is these Floyd Mayweather belts that are needed to prove what I have been saying my entire life – whether it was the sign of Paul McCartney grabbing me and saying, 'It's OK, he doesn't bite,' or the New York Times cover, or the Time (magazine) most-influential cover. And now a doctorate at the School of the Art institute of Chicago

When I was giving a lecture at Oxford, I brought up this school, because when I went on a mission to create in other spaces – apparel, film, performance – it would have been easier to have just said I had a degree at the Art Institute of Chicago! Thank you

Questions from the crowd:

Can I give you a hug? When are you going to open a school? What does Chicago mean to you? Can we hang out later? Do you wanna build a snowman?

I say I wanna build a snowman because I want Bob Iger, the head of Disney, to invest in my ideas. Not one idea, not a good idea, or even a bad idea — a series of them. But just in my ideas...I feel Disney should have an art fund that completely supports all of the artists and...I feel there should be a responsibility