Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.

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

I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.

I was always a junk food person, still am.

I just write all the time. In my whole life I've never had what I've heard people talk about writer's block. I've never had that. Life is like a song to me. I just hear everything in music, so I have never once thought "Well, I'm never gonna be able to write again." I've got thousands of songs.

If I'd married someone in show business, there'd be too much competition.

I can't keep somebody from being a star, and I can't make somebody a star, and nobody can.