The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.

I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.

I'm a very comfortable and happy-go-lucky old man. I never wanted to be great, because I'd just get worried.

Whiskey's to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.

The best compliment I ever had is, one day I was in Nashville, some disc jockey said, Hey, that sounds like a Tom T. Hall song. Up until then there hadn't been any such thing.

I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.

Make your melodies simple enough so that the average person can hum them.

I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups, bourbon in a glass, and grass.

When I first got to Nashville, somebody said that [Kris Kristofferson and I] were the only two people who could describe Dolly Parton without using their hands.

I took up a sort of a hobby of just hanging around the local library. I'd pick out an author and I would read all their books.

After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

It's the family you choose that counts.

You got off on the wrong foot. I merely watched you shove it into your mouth.

I'm not against the police; I'm just afraid of them.

A man of spirit must not think of the word difficulty as so much as existing. Away with it!

This society turns everything it touches into a potential source of progress and exploitation, of drudgery and satisfaction, of freedom and of oppression.

I have three sons, a husband, parents, and I'll fight and get angry, but what is very important that I have found as I've matured, is that I have to move on.

You used to be able to tell a person's nationality by the face. Immigration ended that. Next you discerned nationality via the footwear. Globalization ended that.

The thing of playin' and singin' never bothered me.

The only difference is that, in the last 10 years, the public has been so affected by reality TV and the Internet. They really dwell on entertainers' misgivings.

Much more is accomplished by a single word of the Our Father said, now and then, from our heart, than by the whole prayer repeated many times in haste and without attention.