There's no pillow as soft as a clear conscience.

Life is too short not to enjoy it.

We didn't have electricity when I was a kid. We had to watch TV by candlelight. No, that's a silly joke.

I've laughed, and I've cried. Laughing has got it over crying.

There's a longing in country music that can soften even the rockiest heart.

Success is not getting what you want, it's enjoying what you have.

Great stories start with great opening lines. 'I'm a lineman for the county' - what a great way to start a song.

It was Dec. 22, 1981. I figured I had messed up enough, and I decided to have a little faith and let God take over. It definitely straightened my act up in a hurry.

I don't have Alzheimer's. I have part-timer's.

I'm a take-me-as-l-am person, and all the rest is water under the bridge. You can't change yesterday any more than you can predict what's gonna happen tomorrow.

I was very candid in my book because I want people to know the truth... and that people can change for the better.

I still love making music. And I still love performing for my fans. I'd like to thank them for sticking with me through thick and thin.

I don't really classify 'Wichita Lineman' as country.

God saved me.

I felt my music wasn't aiming at anybody. Everything I was doing was because it was a good song.

I have been blessed. I really have.

A good song is a good song.

I realize you are going to make mistakes through life. Just don't make any bad ones, you know. Like all of my records are perfect records, but I did make mistakes on them.

If I get a song - a good song - I just sing it the way I hear it in my head. If anybody else wanted to add whistles and bells and chains rattling, that's fine. Just not too much. I actually just do things as straight ahead as possible.

When we cut 'Strangers In The Night,' we did the whole song in two takes.

I'm really not a songwriter, so if I hear a song, I feel it and like it, I'll do it. But I'll make it the way I want to hear it.

We lived on the farm, and our mode of transportation was wagon and team. No electricity. I'm the seventh son of 12 kids - eight boys and four girls. Mom and Dad handled that very well. But I wanted to get out.

I just tell you, the Lord's been good to me. Even if I was a rounder, He's been really, really nice to me.

Music is music. It doesn't matter if I am trying to aim at country or trying to aim at pop.

Honesty I can take. Lies I get upset about.

I guess I'm like Roger Miller who used to say that he didn't have as many jokes as he thought he did.

I like to start the day early, it keeps me out of trouble.

I would have been content to just do studio work, making it on my own never really entered my mind.

Some people have said that I can 'hear' a hit song, meaning that I can tell the first time a song is played for me if it has potential. I have been able to hear some of the hits that way, but I can also 'feel' one.

TV is just an incredible media.

Daddy - I remember when he first let me drive the cultivator for him, you know... He eased you into the hard work that you had to do later.

Ah, the Wrecking Crew! They played on everything that came out of L.A. Oh, that was a good band. You really enjoyed going to work. You played for everyone; it didn't matter what it was.

I spent some time in Hell.

I like 'me'/'I' songs.

You don't play around with a good song. You try to just say it right in the proper place, and if you get the music and voice in tune, you'll be all right. That's always worked for me.

I've often asked myself, how much information can the brain actually hold? There'll probably come a day when you're able to download it; that's what you have to do when the machine's full.

God only knows just how much I'm going to do, or not going to do.

I worked my butt off.

Some things I don't want to remember.

I'll tell you, my dad played and sang, and it didn't take me long to figure out that playing a guitar was a whole lot better than getting ahold of a hoe handle or chopping cotton, man.

I listened to a battery radio, old country and pop stuff. Because I was singing all the time, my dad bought me a $7.50 guitar.

I have been very blessed with some great songs.

I like to play golf. You know, make a little money, lose a little money. Get 10 bucks, lose 20 bucks.

I got to play with the big guys, the Wrecking Crew. They just blew me away. I learned a lot of stuff from those guys.

The more you play music, the better you'll get.

I gave John Wayne the push he needed to get that Oscar.

We moved to Los Angeles because our daughter wanted to go to Pepperdine.

I just wanted to do a music show, with the whole realm of music from Ella Fitzgerald to rock bands like Cream to Kenny Rogers. We had a lot of country, but we did every kind of music. The Monkees were on, and so was Johnny Cash.

I was out of control... I was a mess, but God has forgiven me.

I've been through a lot of changes.