Songwriting is as much a craft as a talent.

I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.

I'm a very comfortable and happy-go-lucky old man. I never wanted to be great, because I'd just get worried.

Whiskey's to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.

The best compliment I ever had is, one day I was in Nashville, some disc jockey said, Hey, that sounds like a Tom T. Hall song. Up until then there hadn't been any such thing.

I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.

Make your melodies simple enough so that the average person can hum them.

I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups, bourbon in a glass, and grass.

When I first got to Nashville, somebody said that [Kris Kristofferson and I] were the only two people who could describe Dolly Parton without using their hands.

I took up a sort of a hobby of just hanging around the local library. I'd pick out an author and I would read all their books.

After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial—notoriously less stable and less inherent than the nature of other things. And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit.

There are few things more pathetic than those who have lost their curiosity and sense of adventure, and who no longer care to learn.

I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again.

How you do money is how you do life.

Magic naturally fades over distance. But proximity - well, when it works, proximity amplifies magic.

If you get a reputation for being honest, you have 95 percent of the competition already beat.

Women been gittin' pregnant ever since Eve ate that apple.

If you're going to win the race you have to be a participant

Solidarity...is a structural value of the social doctrine, as Blessed John Paul II reminded us.

Wow," came a familiar voice, "Hypochondriac killed the cat." -Dess