You ain't supposed to get salmon when they're swimming upstream to spawn. But if you're hungry, you do.

I've seen country music go uptown, like we say, and I'm proud I was there when it happened.

I loved being outside. We'd hold lightning bugs in our fingers and pretend they were diamond rings.

I'm always making Butcher Holler sound like the most backward part of the United States-and I think maybe it is.

In the long run, you make your own luck - good, bad, or indifferent.

When I first came to Nashville, people hardly gave country music any respect. We lived in old cars and dirty hotels, and we ate when we could.

I know what it's like to be pregnant and nervous and poor.