I have had hundreds of people work for me over the years, and I don't think I ever fired anybody.
If they want to come out and watch me paint or dig potatoes or mend fences, I don't care. I don't do interviews not because I have anything to hide, but when you retire, the word has a meaning to me. 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.
The first time with artistic endeavors is, if it's working, it was your idea, and if it's not, it's somebody else's idea.
I don't know why songwriters struggle. They have to, I guess. If you're a young songwriter, quit struggling. It makes you look bad.
I've been polite and I've always shown up. Somebody asked me if I had any advice for young people entering the business. I said: "Yeah, show up.
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.
I never hid out. I was never big enough a star.
She gave her heart to Jethro and her body to the whole wide world.
I was quite a reader before I became a writer.
I never fixed a story. I didn't make judgments, I let the listener make judgments. When I got to the end of the story, if it had a moral, I let the listener find it.
I had the notion that I wanted to write the great dirty American novel, so I went to Roanoke College on the GI Bill.
The enticing allure of Nashville is that there is always something new coming down the pike. Put this record on and you’ll hear footsteps.
This generation should entertain this generation. It's only fair. When I was a kid, I mowed the lawn. Now, somebody else's kid can mow the lawn.
My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.
Sinclair Lewis was asked one time to give a talk to class of students about writing. When he got there he asked the class, Do you people want to be writers?and they all said yes. Then Lewis said, Why the hell aren't you at home writing?
Nobody knows a hit before it's a hit.
I am a fan of history.
I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.
The first guy who came up with the concept of religion was sitting out under a tree. I'm sure of that.
People think because you're private, you have something you don't want them to know.
After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.
I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.
