You don't paddle against the current, you paddle with it. And if you get good at it, you throw away the oars.

Johnny Cash has always been larger than life.

Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. 'Cause that's all that matters in the end.

If you can't get out of something, get into it.

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

If God made anything better than women, I think he kept it for himself.

Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free.

You don't paddle against the current, you paddle with it. And if you get good at it, you throw away the oars.

'Heaven's Gate' was based on a true story about the cattle people: the people who had the money turned on the settlers who were in the area. And it was mainly a defense of their behavior. And the cattlemen's association had just about declared war on these people who were poaching cattle, and because they were mainly immigrants.

As far as fame, the everlasting fame thing. I used to think that was important for a writer... the desire to make your mark.

By not having to live up to people's expectations, I was somehow free.

Every time I turn on the radio, I must be on the wrong song or something. But, to be honest, since I went on the road back in 1970, I didn't listen to radio music because I didn't want to subconsciously steal somebody's stuff.

Everything that I write is sort of autobiographical, and I don't know that I'm getting better, but I'm certainly running out of time.

Freedom is just another word: It seems to get truer the older I get.

Havin' Dylan cover one of your songs is like being a playwright and having Shakespeare act in your play.

Human rights is something that wasn't hard to be inspired to write about because there have been so many violations of those rights.

I always had to wait until something hit me, and I could write it. But when I would cut an album, to me it represented the time that I spent since the last one. Just the way I was looking at the world.

I am grateful every morning I wake up. I've a big family full of kids, who laugh all the time and love each other.

I boxed in Golden Gloves at Oxford and still know how to throw a straight left jab.

I can interpret my own work honestly. And performing by myself seems to focus the attention in the right places.

I don't think I'm that good a singer. I can't think of a song that I've written that I don't like the way somebody else sings it better.

I enjoy looking back on my life. I'm thinking seriously about starting to write about it.

I feel like I'm kind of lazy, but I keep the yard looking good.

I feel like an old boxer. The brain's gone, but I can still move around.

I feel like sometimes, when I'm singing a song like 'Moment of Forever,' that it goes both to your significant other and to the audience, and was it wonderful for you, you know? I think the best love songs I've written work on that level, like 'Help Me Make It Through the Night.'

I feel so lucky to have lived the life that I did and to be surrounded by the people I love. I've got eight kids, and they're always laughing all the time. It's like music to my ears. I think that my frame of mind these days is probably happier than I've ever been, which is kind of odd, coming close to the finish line.

I gave everything I ever wrote to Johnny Cash. I think he said later in some interview that he would take them home and throw them in the lake with all the other demos. I'm sure he got a million of them.

I got scars on my face that tell some kind of story. I'm looking in the mirror, and I got one scar that's really two scars - half from a baseball bat and half from playing football in college. I'll tell you, though, after a while, your face gets so wrinkled up you can hardly see them.

I grew up in a time when people believed in duty, honor and country. My grandfathers were both officers. My father was a General in the Air Force. My brother and I were both in the Army. I've always felt a kinship with soldiers; I think it's possible to support the warrior and be against the war.

I grew up listening to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, so arriving in Nashville in the '60s was really exciting for me.

I had a list of rules I made up one time. It says: Tell the truth, sing with passion, work with laughter, and love with heart. Those are good to start with, anyway.

I had fought for my independence and fought for my freedom to do as I chose.

I have a special place in my heart for Nashville because it saved my life back in the day.

I have no regrets. I feel very grateful for the life that I had - you know, family I live with; and I've been doing work that I love, ever since I came to Nashville.

I hope that I'll keep being creative until they throw dirt on me.

I never thought of acting as a creative process. Christ, I used to go to the movies and see Brando talking like he was trying to sell shoes, and he was great. I thought anybody could do it. Then I tried it, and I got so uptight, I'm limited as to what I can do on film.

I never was one to go into an office and write. For one thing, I had a job. I was cleaning the ashtrays and setting up the studios at Columbia for a couple of years and working every other week down in the Gulf of Mexico flying helicopters. I didn't really get to just write songs for about five years.

I really have no anxiety about controlling my own life.

I remember I had an actor friend - a close friend from college - Anthony Zerbe. He sent me a telegram before I started my first movie, 'Cisco Pike.' It said, 'Have a good time. Ignore the camera.' That was the extent of my training.

I remember having a lot of Josh White albums. Johnny Cash. Elvis. I loved the Coasters.

I think I'm a much better father as an older man than I was with my first kids. Occasionally, I have to yell at the little guys, but they don't take me seriously. 'Listen to the old guy,' they say. 'Isn't he great? He's mad.'

I think that a society lives or dies according to its respect for - for its art.

I thought he was the greatest thing. Bob Dylan.

I turned 30 as a janitor. I was thinking at the time that Hank Williams died when he was 29. All my peers were at least 10 years younger than I was. I felt like an old has-been at the time.

I used to think that my songs were the best things that I would leave behind me. And I definitely think my kids are now. For starters, they're writing better songs than I was at their age.

I was in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas. I've argued for Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, the United Farm Workers. I've been a radical for a long time. I guess it's too bad. I'd be more marketable as a right-wing redneck. But I got into this to tell the truth as I saw it.

I was never big or fast, but I got to play football and box.

I was working the Gulf of Mexico on oil rigs, flying helicopters. I'd lost my family to my years of failing as a songwriter. All I had were bills, child support, and grief. And I was about to get fired for not letting 24 hours go between the throttle and the bottle. It looked like I'd trashed my act. But there was something liberating about it.

I watched Dylan record 'Blonde On Blonde' in my first week at work at CBS. It was just incredible.