You get to a certain point in your life where you get closer to the end of your life than the beginning, and it colors your life, in a way.
Emmylou HarrisThe reason you write [songs] is because there's something you want to say that is important to you - enough to go through all the torture of writing.
Emmylou HarrisAs anyone who goes into dog-rescue knows, it is not a for-profit business, but the rewards are priceless for me.
Emmylou HarrisIt's just a sound, and a feeling that's in the music. And you either hear it and appreciate it, or you don't.
Emmylou HarrisI was the audience he wanted to reach. Gram Parsons' writing brought his own personal generations poetry and vision into the very traditional format of country music, and he came up with something completely different
Emmylou HarrisI'm very influenced by landscapes, not so much the way places look as the way the names sound. In this country we've got so many cultures, and the place names - the Spanish names and the Indian names, which are so incredibly musical.
Emmylou HarrisIt's basically a city of songwriters and that's what gives it it's strength, that's what gives it its lasting ability. You've got people making all different kinds of music and that's what attracts me to Nashville as Music City.
Emmylou HarrisI have my own biography of Gram Parsons - I don't want to be part of somebody else's.
Emmylou HarrisI do feel a little embarrassed and ashamed that I was sort of saying, "Oh, yes, I used to do country music, but I didn't inhale." Which is not true at all. I inhaled the hell out of country music.
Emmylou HarrisSo there'll be no guiding light for you and me We are not sailors lost out on the sea We were always headed toward eternity Hoping for a glimpse of Galilee
Emmylou HarrisAnimals have a much better attitude to life and death than we do. They know when their time has come. We are the ones that suffer when they pass, but it's a healing kind of grief that enables us to deal with other griefs that are not so easy to grab hold of.
Emmylou HarrisI'm so grateful that I'm able to do something about this passion that I have for shelter animals. In a strange way, it completes me. It means so much to me and makes me feel like I'm truly making a difference.
Emmylou HarrisI'm blessed to be able to work at something that I'm good at, and that I love. It's not something I take for granted.
Emmylou HarrisWell I was born to run, to get ahead of the rest. And all that I wanted was to be the best Just to feel free and be someone I was born to be fast, I was born to run .
Emmylou HarrisThe only time I ever appeared in the Enquirer was for a piece about people who let their hair grow gray. I guess Iām not much of a wild child.
Emmylou HarrisI get a lot of sleep on the bus. I bring two dogs with me, who keep me grounded. I guess that's just in my soul. It's good to know that you're good at something.
Emmylou HarrisYou have to grow up, start paying the rent and have your heart broken before you understand country.
Emmylou HarrisI think everyone's voice is unique. Although sometimes when you listen to the radio, it makes you wonder.
Emmylou HarrisI really believe that we have a responsibility, almost a sacred responsibility, to the animals that share this planet with us.
Emmylou HarrisThe world has lost a legend, and I have lost a friend. Johnny Cash was the rare soul who could be both.
Emmylou HarrisLike falling stars from the universe we are hurled Down through the long loneliness of the world Until we behold the pain, become the pearl
Emmylou HarrisAs citizens we have to be more thoughtful and more educated and more informed. I turn on the TV and I see these grown people screaming at each other, and I think, well, if we don't get our civility back, we're in trouble.
Emmylou HarrisPatriotism can be good or bad. Knee-jerk patriotism can be very bad. I'm patriotic almost to the point of self-consciousness, but I love my country the way I love a friend or a child who I would correct if she was going the wrong way. Who I expect the very best from.
Emmylou HarrisI don't ever worry about whether I'm being true to my country roots. My country roots were adopted. I never worry about what I can do and what I should do. I just do what I want to do.
Emmylou HarrisIt takes a certain amount of courage to let the field lie fallow until you have something to say.
Emmylou HarrisWhen you're just singing a beautiful melody with a story that's true to the heart, you don't need a lot of embellishment.
Emmylou HarrisYou meet a lot of people and have a lot of experiences, and they color you and stay with you - but I'm not the grieving widow. Life is much more complicated and interesting and full of zigs and zags than that.
Emmylou HarrisThere's a certain grace in accepting what your life is and embracing all the good things that have been - but there's still an expectation of good things to come. Not necessarily what you expected.
Emmylou HarrisI'm just too busy living every day to really spend a lot of time thinking 'am I old?' I'm this age. I am in this moment and in this life.
Emmylou Harris