I try to be good at it, whatever part I'm playing - even in my daily life or when the spotlight hits me on the stage to perform - I gotta be alive every second in this world. With or without the applause!

Most country songs, certainly all the stuff I've written, are stories driven by characters.

One of the things I'm real proud of is I just made a deal with 20th Century Fox, and I've got my own production company now. I'm developing some television and movies for other people because I have a lot of fresh new ideas. To write is what I love the most.

If you talk bad about country music, it's like saying bad things about my momma. Them's fightin' words.

There are some people who physically are not beautiful. But the way they are, the way they treat people, they become beautiful, and you forget all about [their looks].

I'd love to do a duet, always wanted to work with Madonna, but she never asked.

I thank God for my failures. Maybe not at the time but after some reflection. I never feel like a failure just because something I tried has failed.