As long as I'm still able to have a hit on the radio and sell a few albums and some tickets, I don't see that it would be worth retiring.

Hee Haw was probably my biggest exposure to live music at a young age, because there wasn't any live music around my town and no one in my family played instruments.

A country song is a song about life.

Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us; but the greatest is love

The older you are, I think you realize what you enjoy and what you don't need, what wears you out and what's important.

To me, songwriting is the backbone of Nashville. Looks can go, fads can go, but a good song lasts forever.

I don't like politics, hypocrites, folks with poodles.

Tonight I'm the designated drinker.

I'm usually just enjoying life.

I'm hooked on my baby's love, there ain't nothing in the jug this strong.

Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke risin' against that blue sky? Did you shout out in anger, in fear of your neighbor or did you just sit down and cry?..

[T]he astonishing purity of pain, how it will not be mixed with any other sensation.

I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches.

Education is learning more than it is being taught. It's the chemistry of curiosity exposed to information. In that sense all of life is potentially school. And even I can pass that.

I don't smoke or drink, but I will not tell you that I won't smoke again. Probably I will when I'm 60.

So I may not have had a gothic childhood, but childhood makes its own gothicity.

It's wonderful what we can do if we're always doing.

What the first philosopher taught the last will have to repeat.

I never say too much about that in public interviews, because it disappoints the public to tell them you're not that crazy about a property you did that possibly they liked.

To combat social awkwardness, I would just act like I couldn't be bothered - that kind of aloof persona or aloof demeanor. It's so off-putting.

(Sometimes when) someone's directing for the first time, they're afraid to include everyone - they have to prove they're the director.