I'm old enough and cranky enough now that if someone tried to tell me what to do, I'd tell them where to put it.

In the early days, Porter Wagoner would not exactly scold me, but he's say, 'You're writing too many damn verses. You're makin' these songs too damn long.' And I'd say, 'Yeah, but I'm tellin' a story. I have a story to tell.' And he'd say, 'Well, you're not going to get it on the radio.' If I start writing a song, I'm writing it for a reason. People would say that I had to have two verses, and a chorus, and a bridge. I tried to learn that formula.

Everybody has a purpose.

God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.

When I sit back in my rocking chair someday, I want to be able to say I've done it all.

You can't really make people be any different than what they are.

I don't think of myself as a feminist, but if someone calls me a feminist icon, that's fine. I've always stood up for women and myself in general. I have a great love and respect, because I have had beautiful sisters, aunts and my grandmas, but I love men. I totally understand the nature of men.