[To the editor of the Harlan, Kentucky, Daily Enterprise, as a kindergartener:] I know everything that goes on in this town, and if you give me a job so will you.

[On social climbing:] Everything that goes up must come down.

The only way to keep a secret in Washington, if you are the one person who knows it, is never to tell another living soul.

In Harlan, Kentucky, we told stories the way some people play music. ... In the mountains, storytelling is truly an art form, and as much recreation as communication.

The Truth of God is true testimony.

I have shaken loose. Like the lily, I rest on the deep water's surface. Not knowing the journey's end, I rest in nature's embrace.

Make the most of prayer. ... Prayer is the master-weapon. We should be wise if we used it more, and did so with a more specific purpose.

Between nature and music there seems to be an elective affinity: they fit together, and when they do experiences of an ineffable kind are generated.

I'm going in a really weird I-don't-know-where direction, but I prefer anything [different] from how standardized filmmaking has become.

If money's the god people worship, I'd rather go worship the devil instead.

I always thought the good thing about the guitar was that they didn't teach it in school.

You think you may not be heard. Speak anyway.

That is the really great thing about being an adult male, once you get married and have children the whole decision-making process is taken out of your hands, and I for one am extremely grateful.

Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality.