Creative people have to be fed from the divine source. I have to get fed. I had to get filled up in order to pour out.

The requests started coming in from other prisoners all over the United States. And then the word got around. So I always wanted to record that, you know, to record a show because of the reaction I got. It was far and above anything I had ever had in my life, the complete explosion of noise and reaction that they gave me with every song. So then I came back the next year and played the prison again, the New Year's Day show, came back again a third year and did the show.

A rose looks grey at midnight, but the flame is just asleep. And steel is strong because it knows the hammer and white heat.

Six foot six he stood on the ground He weighed two hundred and thirty-five pounds But I saw that giant of a man brought down To his knees by love

Prisoners are the greatest audience that an entertainer can perform to.

I had a song called "Folsom Prison Blues" that was a hit just before "I Walk The Line." And the people in Texas heard about it at the state prison and got to writing me letters asking me to come down there. So I responded and then the warden called me and asked if I would come down and do a show for the prisoners in Texas.

You know, the man's best friend is his dog... if he's got nothing else.