Country music has to evolve in order to survive.

Not everybody in the country-music community is like me - I just happen to be one of the guys that is stereotypical.

In country music, one of the ways we may have gone wrong in the past is trying to be politically correct all the time.

I think the worst thing you can do is blend in. Why would you ever want to blend in?

I want to stand for something, and it's probably going to be something that some people stand against.

AT&T sucks. There's no excuse for being in downtown Los Angeles, and your phone loses service. That's ridiculous.

I have family in Oklahoma City.

If you're not offending one group of people, you're not entertaining the other.

God-dang-it, country music is my heart.

I'm a country artist first and just happen to be on television doing it.

Stop using the word 'bromance.' Can we please kill that stupid term? We're just friends. It's called friendship!

Jason Aldean is actually probably a really good rapper. He sounds like it to me.

I think that men should wear shoes that if there's an emergency, they're gonna be able to help.

I had so much fun playing songs from 'Based On A True Story...' and getting to see the crowd's reaction to those songs was unforgettable.

It is one of the most validating things for an artist like me, to have people sing along to your songs.

I hate pigs. I hate goats.

I can't say that I've ever actually got on a horse and roped a cow, no.

When you start dating another country star, the first question is, 'When are y'all gonna do a duet?' And what sucks about that is people expect you to do it whether you want to or not.

My critics are pretty tough. I've never been one of the music industry's pets.

I'm not a summertime guy. The only time I really enjoy the summer is touring and performing because there is nothing else for me to do at home. It's too hot, and you can't farm. You can't hunt.

Anybody that has followed closely what I've been doing can see from 'Home,' being as big a hit as it was, it kind of opened the door for me to try new things musically.

My favorite songs to sing have always been songs about regret. I don't know why that is, but to me, that's country music.

I remember telling the head of Warner Brothers that if they'd just make a video for 'Ol' Red'... and if it didn't work, they could drop me from the label.

I would not want to be Richard Simmons... right now or anytime. He seems like a nice guy, but if I had to dress like that? That would absolutely suck.

I'm not the kind of person who thrives in 'the scene.'

I think just knowing you're married and having that in the back of your mind all the time - it sounds official, but it doesn't really feel any different. We don't do anything differently than we did before.

I grew up listening to 1980s country music, mostly. Early '90s. That time period was my favorite.

Every day, somebody has a song they want you to hear, and you're stupid if you don't listen to it because you never know what you may find.

My favorite thing about Los Angeles is there are businesses that you can call, and they will deliver groceries to your house.

This business of demonizing or pre-defining people by the way they look, the religion that they practice, or where they came from is not only un-American but it's going to hurt America.

I would say that every pope has had people within his administration who have had difficulties one way or another with his administration.

We have always wanted to make sure that we start the conversation by saying that all people are of value and their lives should be respected and that we should respect them.

People should be called the way that they want to be called rather than us coming up with terms that maybe we're more comfortable with.

The open and generous nature of the American people has the capacity to astonish and push boundaries. We crowdfund, sign petitions, dump buckets of ice on ourselves, and embrace new ways of relating to our environment.

If we create a framework for decision-making that is biased toward life, supportive of families, and fair to people of all circumstances, our policies, legislation, and commercial decisions will be vastly different.

The nation's children, families, poor, workers, and senior citizens deserve more than lip service. They deserve more than outrage. They deserve real support, protection, and solid action.

We are an immigrant nation.

Once kids begin to realize that they are connected to a greater good and greater whole, then that will lessen the possibility that they will act out violently because it creates empathy.

We budget quite a bit of money every year in order to assist people who are migrating here, people who are trying to enter into our society and be a part of the American dream.

We help immigrants because we are an immigrant nation, and we are an immigrant church. We've always done that; this is nothing new to us. This is not a new venture for us. It's who we are and have been from the very beginning of the history of the Catholic Church in this country.

We have to be sure we don't pigeonhole one group as though they're not part of the human family, as though there's a different set of rules for them. That would be a big mistake.

We have to believe in the mercy and grace of God to trigger conversion rather than the other way around: that you're only going to get the mercy if you have a conversion. The economy of salvation doesn't work that way.

Christ receives people; because of that mercy, conversion happens.

I did my doctoral dissertation on the lectionary readings that we use at mass and how you have biblical texts that have been taken out of their original Bible context and put together for mass, and now they form a new text. Out of that new text, there is an interplay of new meaning.

I try to be sensitive to the power of language, to the power of language that God uses to reveal something about what Christ is doing in our time. That is why I'm always excited about preaching, because there is always something new.

I was really grateful to have a chance to have some really in-depth study about the power of language using a philosopher who taught at the University of Chicago by the name of Paul Ricoeur. I'm really happy to be in Chicago because a lot of what I do is rooted in his approach to language.

I think that the Pope has trust in every bishop that is appointed.

Those who do not think religious organizations should have an opinion on climate change misunderstand the former and the moral dimension of the latter.

We are called to care for those sickened by pollution, house those displaced by environmental calamities, and heal the spirits of those - especially our youth - who are disheartened by a world where human survival is now in question.

Racism is a sin and has no place in the church, including the Archdiocese of Chicago.