Top 50 Carlene Carter Quotes

I’ve always wanted to make records that rock like hell. But also, I’ve never wanted to compromise that Country place deep inside.

Be yourself. And every person is unique.

I was always in a big hurry to do everything. Before I was 20, I was married twice and had two kids. But I don’t regret any of it. I learned a lot about myself. I had a lot to say for someone my age, real early on.

I love rock n’ rollers.

I always knew I would make the record that I made in ‘Carter Girl.’

I got into photography when my kids were little, and I continued talking pictures over the years.

My songs are about who I am.

I don’t really have any ditties left in me anymore.

Basically, I grew up watching Carter girls on stage, watching my grandmother, my mom and my aunts perform. They used to say, ‘Okay, Carter girls, you’re on!’

Lots of girls marry at 16 in Tennessee.

It’s all for a reason and all happened the way it was supposed to happen.

I do feel I’m responsible to carrying on the music. That’s what I was charged with as a kid. When I was a little girl, I was told, ‘When we are gone’ – when you’re a kid, you never think they’ll ever be gone – ‘you have to keep the music alive, the Carter Family songs, and add your own songs.’

Everyone deals with loss. I’m no different, but we all find our ways of coming through things. Is it tough? Of course, but you find the strength to push on through.

A lot of people said I was a rebel. I wasn’t.

When I’m on stage, I know exactly where I am. It’s not an ego thing or anything like that, but I am more in my body and aware of myself and aware of what I’m doing, and I feel more from that, from sharing the music.

Sometimes, it’s good to stick to your guns.

I’m a bubbling brew of emotions, but mostly, I’m an optimistic person.

I was thinking about it: so many of my stories are about my family life, not about being related to a lot of famous people. That’s my grandma, that’s my mama, my daddy, my aunt, my uncle, my stepdaddy. I’d probably tell them even if they weren’t well known.

Musically, I always wanted to experiment.

The first five albums I did, I tried a little bit of everything. I was trying not to conform at all.

Eccentricity has never been discouraged in our family.

I learned how to sing in front of a lot of people and to hone my skills alongside some of the greatest performers of all time.

The first time I went on stage as an adult was touring with the Johnny Cash Show. I’d sang as a child. But my grown-up initiation was as part of that band.

I always have to just be myself. Anything else, I’m not happy, and it comes out musically.

I never, by any regard, ever denied any part of my family roots.

I don’t know how I got out of some of the scrapes I was in. But I know that there’s some sort of plan.

I’ve always been one of those people – once I start something, I have to get it all out, because it gets me.

Don’t try to be like somebody else. You’ll be miserable. You need to be yourself, and don’t ever get a big head.

Working with Mellencamp, I made new fans, people that may have never heard of me. They may have heard I was related to the Carter Family or Johnny Cash somehow, but what they got was pure Carlene.

I like things all shined up and rocking with hooky pop choruses.

My mother has always been open about all kinds of music and entertainment. She wanted us to see that it was not just country music and the Grand Ole Opry.

I can laugh and cry at the drop of a freakin’ hat – all at the same time.

I’m really about my family and really proud of being a Carter.

Even city people have ancestors who had their hands in the dirt.

Grandma and Mama showed me that you always have to give as much as you can, no matter what.

If someone gets married at 15, they’re either dumb or pregnant. I was both.

I’m pretty much an open book.

I moved back to Tennessee in ’86 or ’87. That’s when I worked with the Carter Family because I really wanted to understand my roots.

I fly from the seat of my pants, basically.

I’ve always been one to throw caution to the wind, and my motto has been, ‘Never have a dull moment.’ Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but I don’t think I’d have it much differently.

Whenever I get to a point I’m so tired that I forgot the verse of a song, I know I’m burnt out.

One good thing is I was instilled with really good values. My mom treats everyone the same.

I’ve had a few ditty hits.

In the late ’70s, I was falling into the middle lane. I was way too country to be rock, and way too rock to be a country act.

I like to do one thing at a time and do it to the best of my ability.

There was a period where I was a little scared that I’d blown my chance.

There are no rules when it comes to songwriting, so I’d turn Carter family songs from the 1930s into pop songs.

I wood-shedded for a year to play Grandma’s simple stuff. It’s not that simple, and I don’t use picks the way she does. But I played them as authentically as I could, with the flat-picking.

I wanted to play rocking country music, and when I started out in the late Seventies, it took me a couple of albums to figure out how to do that.

I believe everything falls into place as it’s supposed to.