I learned to tune a guitar by ear. That method has served me pretty well.

For most entertainers, there is a single experience, one defining moment, when confidence replaces the self-doubt that most of us wrestle with.

The tastes of country music fans are not limited to the narrow range defined by consultants and programmers and record company moguls.

It used to be that if you had a pretty good record, you could stop by a station in Little Rock or Atlanta and let the DJ listen to it. No way something like that can happen now.

The time I spent thinking about how I was better than somebody else or worrying about somebody else's attitude was time I could put to better use.

I finally came to terms with manic depression and lithium. I've taken lithium regularly for the past few years and have had no further bouts with manic depression.

Fans are what make a performer and I've always taken them seriously.

A fan will grab you and hug you and will not let go. When that happens, you wish it could be that way all over the world.

There only have been two people on this earth that I was nervous around: Chet Atkins and Mickey Mantle. It's because of the respect I have for them.

No one had ever told me that whites were supposed to sing one kind of music and blacks another - I sang what I liked in the only voice I had.

Chet Atkins... is probably the best guitar player who ever lived.

We're all a blemished spirit full of censurable faults

Inner guidance is heard like soft music in the night by those who have learned to listen.

At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.

Meryl Streep is an acting machine in the same sense that a shark is a killing machine.

I like simplicity; I don't need luxury.

And love … love was worth dying for. Worth living for, too.

As a heart surgeon I am on constant call, and when not researching or giving lectures, I like to be with my family.

I'm learning to say 'y'all' and, I like grits... Strange things are happening to me.

When I was young, if a girl married poverty, she bcame a drudge; if she married wealth, she became a doll.

We must be moving, working, making dreams to run toward; the poverty of life without dreams is too horrible to imagine.