I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

I make jokes about it, but it's the truth that I kind of patterned my look after the town tramp. I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blond and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Momma used to say, "Aw, she's just trash," and I thought, That's what I want to be when I grow up. Trash.

People are always asking me in interviews, 'What do you think of foreign affairs?' I just say, 'I've had a few.'

If I see something sagging, dragging and bagging, I’ll get it nip, tucked, sucked or plucked.

I have to not harden my heart, because I want to stay open to feel things.

I think being poor has been good for me. I saw how my mom and dad struggled, and how they could stretch a dollar farther than you could begin to imagine.

The worst thing about poverty is not the actual living of it, but the shame of it.