Wandering around back stage at a willie Nelson concert is a bit like being the parrot on the shoulder of the guy who's running the Ferris wheel. It's not the best seat in the house, but you see enough lights, action, people, and confusion to make you wonder if anybody knows what the hell's going on. If you're sitting out front, of course, it all rolls along as smoothly as a German train schedule, but as Willie, like any great magician, would be the first to point out, the real show is never in the center ring. As Willie always says, Fortunately, we're not in control.

Whether your destination is heaven or hell, you always have to change planes in Dallas.

I'm not pro-life, and I'm not pro-choice. I'm pro-football.

I don't think I have even achieved fame. Of course, Hemingway says that fame is death's little sister.

My goal as a young man, to be fat, famous and financially fixed by 50.

If Raymond Chandler came from the South, his name would be Ace Atkins.

I never apologize for the truth. And the truth here is that racists come in many different colors.