Never settle for the path of least resistance

When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.

I think you can have moderate success by copying something else, but if you really want to knock it out of the park, you have to do something different and take chances.

And I hate to see artists who are real safe. I love to see artists swing for the fences sometimes.

I'm a businesswoman. I am a music lover. I like for people to like my music. When you listen to top 40 radio, you hear pop stuff. You hear rock stuff. You hear all these different influences

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean.

When you come close to selling out, reconsider.

And to me, I had come out of Texas, and during that time was when I realized that a lot of people in Nashville, their idea of what country music was was not the same as mine.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder. You get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger. May you never take one single breath for granted. God forbid love ever leave you empty handed.

I can see me continuing to make the best music I can, and let the chips fall where they may.

I don't sing country music because I'm not capable of singing other kinds of music; I sing it because I think it's the most beautiful kind of music there is

Art consists in going the full length. If you start with the drums you have to end with dynamite, or TNT.

You cannot harden your heart to the future just because of your past. You cannot use cruelty against yourself to justify cruelty to others.

When you don’t have honesty in love then there is no communication. Honesty is improvisation of the heart

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

If you feed the poor, you're a saint. If you ask why they're poor, you're a Communist.

A good piece of technology dreams of the day when it will be replaced by a newer piece of technology. This is one definition of progress.

I avoid the media circus, keep my head down and try to keep growing and learning things.

There was some sadness in how that could happen, falling out of love with something that had shaped you. Or even people who had.

Value yourself. The only people who appreciate a doormat are people with dirty shoes.

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.