We were sharecroppers - we were a little bit of everything. We farmed and tried to make something.

I am who I am, I am what I am, I do what I do and I ain't never gonna do it any different. I don't care who likes it and who don't.

I was always very grateful to 'em and am grateful to 'em now. I went back a couple of years ago and did their 20th anniversary show. But the longer I stayed on Hee Haw, the worse things got for me musically.

I'm from the Bob Wills and the Little Richard school of music. Bob Wills did what the hell he thought, Little Richard did what he thought, and those were my big influences.

My mother told me on several different occasions that she was livin' her dream vicariously through me. She once said that I was getting' to do all the things that she would have wanted to have done.

That was where my dream began to take hold, of not havin' to pick cotton and potatoes, and not havin' to be uncomfortable, too hot or too cold. That in itself had driven me to try to find some better way of life.

But most distinctly, I remember always saying to myself that when I get big, I'm not going to go to bed hungry, I'm not going to wear hand-me-down clothes.

I'm in an absolute frenzy towards doing as many things as I can that I want to do today. The rest can wait till tomorrow, next week, if I'm around we'll take a look.

I didn't say I wasn't gonna do rockabilly. I just said I ain't gonna sing no song that ain't a country song. I won't be known as anything but a country singer.

You get up about 2-3 o'clock in the morning and get through about 7 or 8 and 12 hours later you start all over. That's the worst kind of work a person can do. You have to do these two shifts to get one day.

Lady Limelight is a jealous lady. She wants all of your attention. You don't have any time to think of anything else but Lady Limelight, because pretty soon that light will be shinning on somebody else. So you better do it while you can.

I found a sound that people really liked - I found this basic concept and all I did was change the lyrics and the melody a little bit. My songs, if you listen to them, they're quite a lot alike, like Chuck Berry.

The last 16 years of my daddy's life, he got to work for me, and that made him his own boss and he like that.

We used to get one room and we'd park the vehicle outside, everybody would all take showers and we'd steal towels because we knew we wasn't gonna have enough towels for all five of us to shower.

I'd like just to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs, and had a hell of a time.

The road had the lonely times, but I kept myself busy.

We were sharecroppers - we were a little bit of everything. We farmed and tried to make something.

If you want me in the Hall of Fame put me in because of some contributions that I have made to country music.

And I said, 'Why not? It's the truth! Why can't I say I'm a Beatles fan?' I used to get criticized for that.

I never expected to record again. I knew I had done everything I ever wanted to do. I was satisfied. But... all the time I'm watching the country music horizon. And I'm sayin' 'Lord, is there anybody gonna come?'

I got to realizing that I wanted to record, I wanted to experiment. And doing those same old songs the same old way - I said, 'I think it's time for me to have some fun.'

I enjoyed the Hee Haw people, but from 1980 on I didn't enjoy it and thought about leavin', and thought, hell, it's an easy job and pays wonderful. I kinda just prostituted myself for their money.

I do not write, I build.

People who are sick, or who have been sick, or have come close to death have a lot to say - and they want you to hear it.

When you already have a following, people are more likely to employ you.

If I had an extra 20 or 50 years physically, I could have been the dancer of my dreams. But I never became that dancer.

I wouldn't change anything. I think that it's important to let things happen, and stay "happened". I think that's all part of the learning curve, part of fate. I'm just glad that it happened.

Conformity is the only real fashion crime.

Sure, you always put some of your own experience into a film.

Comedy comes from confusion.

No psychic value can disappear without being replaced by another of equivalent intensity.

When you hire a plumber because no hot water is coming out of the kitchen sink faucet, you need to go to the water heater, not the faucet.

It was a very emotional dinner... Everyone shared personal stories about her and gave her words of encouragement and inspiration. Everyone tried to remain positive.

Oddly, the military world is one of great sameness. There is an orderly quality to life on an army base, and even the children of the military are brought up with that sense of order and sameness.

At school, up to the age of sixteen, I found history boring, for we were studying the Industrial Revolution, which was all about Acts, Trade Unions and the factory system, and I wanted to know about people, because it is people who make history.

Anyone can make things that are beautiful; we need to make things that are remarkable.

Every major food company now has an organic division. There's more capital going into organic agriculture than ever before.

Our site should be like Paddington Station with a much better version of WH Smith's in it.

So I went to Miami in '74 with my family and while I was there it became obvious that we needed money and we needed to do something, because my family, we left without anything really, and we didn't have any money to begin with.

My childhood dream was to study mechanical engineering. After reading 'The Mysterious Island' - which I read 25 times as a boy - I thought that was the best thing a person could do. The engineer in the book knows mechanics and physics, and he creates a whole way of life on the island out of nothing. I wanted to be like that.

Accept what you did do, and live with it.

I am so thankful for the genius of Phil Spector, for his recognition of my talent to be the main voice of his Wall of Sound.

I have always thought of myself as a performer first and way down the line as a recording artist.

People say you must be pragmatic, more clinical. More pragmatic than me? I'm sorry.

With a houseful of kids you give each other strength.

It's often the case that great artists - people like Bruce Springsteen - tend to pick up the subterranean rumblings of profound social change long before the economic statisticians notice them. Changes start long before they become statistics.