I think so many people live their whole life in fear and doubt and shame.
I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.
A lot of people have said I’d have probably done better in my career if I hadn’t looked so cheap and gaudy. But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn’t be blamed because you want to look pretty.
I don’t think I’m supposed to boss other people around just because I’m a so-called celebrity or star. I hate that when people act that way. No one deserves it. I’ve seen it happen. I don’t call those people out – they know who they are. Some enjoy that reputation.
When I get down, I don’t waller around for long.
I always think of myself as a working girl.
My favorite movies of all times is ‘Doctor Zhivago,’ and I love ‘Gone With the Wind.’ I’d love to play some Southern belle or something where I owned a plantation.
You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
I don’t like to get involved in things that I am not familiar with. I’m kind of a hands-on type of person.
I’m gonna be making records anyway, even if I had to sell ’em out of the trunk of my car. I’m that kind of musician and singer.
I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.
Most country songs, certainly all the stuff I’ve written, are stories driven by characters.
I’ve always been fascinated by everything with wings.
I’ve never been pregnant, so I just feel God didn’t mean for me to have kids so that everybody else’s children could be mine.
I love being active.
I’ve never had that much trouble with the paparazzi, but I don’t run the same circles that a lot of these people that do get hounded by the paparazzi.
It’s a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I’d be a drag queen.
All my momma’s people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.
I think 9/11 affected everybody in one way or another.
My grandpa was a preacher.
It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.
I’ll bring my grits when I travel, because I get so hungry on the road.
Energy begets energy.
I think people take me as seriously as I want them to. They take me as seriously as I take myself – let’s put it that way.
When I wake up, I expect things to be good. If they’re not, then I try to set about trying to make them as good as I can ’cause I know I’m gonna have to live that day anyway. So why not try to make the most of it if you can? Some days, they pan out a little better than others, but you still gotta always just try.
I don’t have maids or servants, and my husband and I love waking up early and going to the 24-hour supermarket when there is nobody else there.
I often joke that 100 years from now I hope people are saying, ‘Dang, she looks good for her age!’
I love being busy.
I always ask God to work through me and let me be a light of some kind and help in this world, so I always pray for that, and I always want to do good.
Plastic surgeons are always making mountains out of molehills.
I’ve always loved the fans in Scotland and have a little Scottish blood of my own.
I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.
Years ago, when I first started being a big star, I had fans that were fanatical. It was when ‘Jolene’ was a big hit.
You know, I look like a woman but I think like a man. And in this world of business, that has helped me a lot. Because by the time they think that I don’t know what’s goin’ on, I then got the money, and gone.
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
I try to see the good in everybody, and I don’t care who people are as long as they’re themselves, whatever that is.
I’ve done everything every fat person ever has. I’ve tried every diet.
I’ve… been accused of being involved with every man I’m ever seen with or worked with. Maybe I have, maybe I ain’t. I never tell if I have.
‘Wrecking Ball’ is a great song.
If I’d married someone in show business, there’d be too much competition.
I was always a junk food person, still am.
It took me years to eat a lot of shellfish. I was probably 20 years old before I had even seen a shrimp cocktail. I like oysters, but fried.
I say, ‘Yeah, Taylor Swift.’ I think she is a smart, beautiful girl. I think she’s making all the right moves. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s surrounded with wonderful people. Her songs are great. She keeps herself anchored. She knows who she is, and she’s living and standing by that.
I had nothing growing up, but I always wanted to be ‘sexy,’ even before I knew what the word was.
You always want your people to be proud of what you have accomplished.
You’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap!
I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.
I’m not trying to be fashionable. Never was!
Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.
I wear make-up, and it gets a little bit thicker every year.
I don’t have anything to say about other people’s art and their work.
There’s a lot of rednecks in the country where I grew up.
I always wanted to be loved.
I’m just a simple country girl.
Every time I come to Europe, I’m just as excited as I was my very first time, which was many, many years ago. I love that part of the world, and I especially love the fans.
First thing I do in the morning, after I have my breakfast and do my spiritual work, is put on my makeup and fix my hair, and I can do my makeup in 15 minutes.
Above everything else I’ve done, I’ve always said I’ve had more guts than I’ve got talent.
My first job was singing on the Cas Walker radio show in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was about 10 years old, and I thought it was big time.
I write for myself things that I’ve gone through.
We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.
‘Jolene’ has been very popular all of these years, even overseas.
When you’re 40, you can’t ride the fence anymore. You gotta make definite decisions about your life.
If I hadn’t been a woman, I’d be a drag queen for sure. I like all that flair and I’d be dressing up in them high heels and putting on the big hair. I’d be like Ru Paul.
I have a big gay and lesbian following and they’ve been very loyal and kind to me.
I love to flirt, and I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.
My songs are the door to every dream I’ve ever had and every success I’ve ever achieved.
I listen to my old records and I think, ‘How did I ever get on the radio?’
I don’t think you ever really know what all you’re doing, so you have to act on faith.
People are looking for something a little more stable; people are feeling like they need to get closer to God.
For some reason, I have better luck when I work with women. I guess I have a good sense of sisterhood.
If you like good ol’ fashion Southern soul food then, yes, I am a good cook! My specialty is chicken dumplings and poke salad.
If I see something sagging, bagging or dragging I’ll get it nipped, tucked or sucked.
My life has been very full.
My fat never made me less money.
I just don’t have time to get old!
If people work for me over the years, I expect them to be paid what they’re owed, but I don’t expect them to be paid more than they earn.
I look at myself like a show dog. I’ve got to keep her clipped and trimmed and in good shape.
I met my husband before I became a star, and he doesn’t care about any of it.
I’d love to do a duet, always wanted to work with Madonna, but she never asked.
I’m a workin’ girl.
When I do listen to music, I’m more prone to listen to the people I’ve always listened to: George Jones, Otis Redding, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.
When I got somethin’ to say, I’ll say it.
I usually get up at 3 A.M. I don’t require a lot of sleep, and if I get tired, I’ll take a powernap during the day.
There are certainly a lot of things that still need to change when it comes to women in the workforce.
It’s not easy being young. It’s hard to know what to do.
I think that I’m perfect.
I wear wigs all the time on shows, and every day when I’m in public, at Dollywood. People say, ‘How many wigs do you have?’ And I say, ‘Well, at least 365 because I wear at least one a day.’
They say somebody’s ‘street smart.’ I feel like, if I got intelligence, it’s just a country smart.
We’re all just a bunch of sinners, but we do the best we can.
I was the first woman to burn my bra – it took the fire department four days to put it out.
I was approached about having my own network many, many years ago. There were some people who wanted to start up a network, and I didn’t want to get that involved in the business aspect of it.
I always loved that old song ‘Banks of the Ohio’ – it was always such a man’s song, so I’ve always wanted to record it.
