QUOTE(s) OF THE DAY

[ON HAVING KIDS

"I want to have kids," he tells PEOPLE. "But I want to have the right girl too – someone who really cares about me."

[ON MEETING WOMEN]

"When I'm in a club, girls are super-calculating, planning every step," he says.

[ON LOSING HIS MOM]

"It's lonely at the top," .... "Losing my mom, having no woman in my life to support me – I feel like I'm on my own and can only express it through my music."

"She influenced me to do exactly what I want to do," he explained. "With my mom's passing, I learned that ... you can't let people box you in. You gotta do what you want to do."

It's a subject that, for a long time, was too sensitive to discuss. "I didn't do any interviews after my mom passed, I wasn't ready to speak about [it]," he said. "Now I'd rather talk it through than commit suicide. I'm super devastated."

Cruelly, the rapper blames himself – or more specifically, his fame – for her death. "I feel like I moved to California, then my mom moved to California, and she did stuff she wouldn't have done if we'd stayed in Chicago," he said. "If I'd never made it in the music business, it never would've happened."

[ON FAME]

And fame has brought complications to his own life. "I'm an alien. The only place I can be alone is my hotel room – I can't even go to the grocery store," West added. "But don't feel sorry for me – I just did a shoot for Louis Vuitton. Don't worry about me, I'll be okay in the end."