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.

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.

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

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

I really do know football.

In the act of deciding what to eliminate, you place value on what's left behind.

My best friends are books, I can easily read them and take them wherever I go.

People really do like seeing their best friends humiliated; a large part of the friendship is based on humiliation; and that is an old truth,well known to all intelligent people.

I have always differentiated between two types of friends; those who want proofs of friendship, and those who do not. One kind loves me for myself and the others for themselves.

Anything that opens you up emotionally is going to impact your acting. Parenthood, becoming a mom, certainly does that.

I'd pay more just to hear proper English and have everyone keep their clothes on

Other than He cannot be qualified by two (opposite) qualities at one time; yet With Him they do not create opposition. He is hidden in His manifestation, manifest in His concealing.

I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

Beatles was 20th-century folksong in the framework of capitalism; they couldn't do anything different if they wanted to communicate within that framework.