I simply find that as a songwriter, my goal is to try to move people. And I feel that before I can move other people, I have to genuinely be able to move myself.

People look at you, and they've got just the perfect little box for you, the perfect category. Call you a redneck. Call you a hillbilly. Like those were insults.

Bluegrass is really a big part of my background.

It's a great day to be alive. I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes.

It's the same old story you've heard a thousand times. Somebody's trust gets broken. Somebody's left behind.

The biggest cause of divorce is marriage.

Please tell me you will remember, no matter how much I do wrong that I had the best of intentions all along.

If you're gonna sing, sing loud.

I've been writing on my own. It's like Roger Miller used to say, every now and then, like a dog having puppies, you have to crawl under the house and do it yourself.

When they talk about music getting in your blood, I understand exactly what they're talking about, because that is me.

I'm a member of a country club, country music is what I love.

Knowledge is not made for understanding it is made for cutting.

Sweet is every sound, Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, The moans of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees.

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

I like, you may say, the glitter and colour that comes from the mouth, and I've always hoped in a sense to be able to paint the mouth like Monet painted a sunset.

It's very exciting to have fan response and fan reaction.

We don't have time to be sad

You cover 50 yards on the playing field of faith with a story that downplays your success. You cover 3 yards, or you may even end up backward, with anything that up-plays or promotes you.

It is not the shilling I give you that counts, but the warmth that it carries with it from my hand.

You don't fear me," he said now. She wasn't stupid enough to lie. "I'm petrified. But I figure you didn't make me come all this way just so you could push me off the roof.

I cannot believe homosexuality is that much fun. Heterosexuality certainly is not.