I tell you, I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rockers!

You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

I snapped my fingers all through it. Sometimes I set my own tempo during rehearsal by doing that.

Sixteen Tons was written eight years before I recorded it.

Know yourself -- and know your audience.

When you do a show five days a week and one night a week, the way I was doing, you use up so much music every day that pretty soon you find yourself hustling for material.

You can't cheat the public for long.

Do you want to be successful? Nurture your talent.

Shot Gun Boogie, I wanted wedding bells. I'll be back little gal, when your pappy runs out of shells.

If you see me coming, better step aside. A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died.

You can keep rummaging around until you find a song you like, but you can't predict whether it'll hit or not.

A graceful refusal is better than a lengthy promise.

Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.

Healing Follows Forgiveness

If you're gonna catch fire

I want to make sure America has got the best education system in the world. And we're retaining our workers for the jobs of tomorrow.

Never set a child afloat on the flat sea of life with only one sail to catch the wind.

I thought what I was good at doing was playing real simple guitar licks, since I'd cut my teeth on what Duane Eddy was doing; licks that were simple but had staying power.

I'm so lucky, I'm just really grateful for what I've got around me - children and my wife and everything else.

He who is not master of his own thoughts is not accountable for his own deeds.

I've always had my ear pierced with a diamond stud. I did it myself when I was 16.