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.

If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I’d figure her career was as dead as mine!

Faulkner was almost oriental. I never got into Faulkner.

The first guy who came up with the concept of religion was sitting out under a tree. I’m sure of that.

My theory is if you have a religion, it’s a good one. Because some people don’t have any at all.

Religion is a strange, wonderful thing. More crimes have been committed in the name of righteousness than any other notion.

My best album is called In Search Of A Song. That was my best shot right there. My finest hour, as they say. I could listen to the whole thing all the way through. There’s nothing really crammed into it.

I was quite a reader before I became a writer.

People think because you’re private, you have something you don’t want them to know.

I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.

I have my own religion. I’m sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.

When you retire, 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.

I had the notion that I wanted to write the great dirty American novel, so I went to Roanoke College on the GI Bill.

I am a fan of history.

It used to be that you’d have a song recorded by a major country artist and if it was a hit, you could buy a car. Now you can buy a dealership.

I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.

I have had hundreds of people work for me over the years, and I don’t think I ever fired anybody.

The best compliment I ever had is, one day I was in Nashville, some disc jockey said, Hey, that sounds like a Tom T. Hall song. Up until then there hadn’t been any such thing.

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.

Young kids are doing the same thing I did, but they’re doing it differently. They don’t do brain surgery the way they used to do it either.

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.

After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

Whiskey’s to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.

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.

The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.

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’m a very comfortable and happy-go-lucky old man. I never wanted to be great, because I’d just get worried.