Tom T. Hall Quotes

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.

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 love winners when they cry, losers when they try.

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

Old dogs care about you, even when you make mistakes.

When you retire, it's a place in life, a part of the journey. You just don't quit work; you develop an attitude where you can do what you please

God bless little children while they're still too young to hate.

Religion is a strange, wonderful thing. More crimes have been committed in the name of righteousness than any other notion.

I think the nature of songwriters is that they are philosophers, and philosophers have a bent towards poetry and songwriting, so I think that the two run around together. The nature of a songwriter could be philosophical. Looking for universal ideas, a way to say things, get the story across as a means of entertaining, provoking thought.

It's Faster horses, Younger women, Older whiskey and More money.

It is so important for me to try, and having tried I look back on failure and success as if it were all the same.

It used to be that youd have a song recorded by a major country artist and if it was a hit, you could buy a car. Now you can buy a dealership.

A song is a poem set to music.

My best album is called In Search Of A Song. That was my best shot right there. My finest hour, as they say. I could listen to the whole thing all the way through. There's nothing really crammed into it.

Is this really Butte, Montana, or just existential blues?

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

Young kids are doing the same thing I did, but they're doing it differently. They don't do brain surgery the way they used to do it either.

Songwriting is as much a craft as a talent.

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

If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I'd figure her career was as dead as mine!

I knew a lot of chords, but they weren't the chords that came with the melody that came with the idea I had for the song. Melodies are simple things. If you see a train wreck, there's a melody. If you see a little daisy blowing in the breeze, there's a melody.

Me and Jesus got our own thing going on. We don't need anybody to tell us what it's all about.

A monkey was the President, though maybe not the first. And there was peace and harmony throughout the universe.

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

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.