Top 79 Quotes & Sayings by Carlene Carter

I don't have any regrets at all.

There's something unnatural about losing a sibling when they're young.

I do feel I'm responsible to carrying on the music. That's what I was charged with as a kid. When I was a little girl, I was told, 'When we are gone' - when you're a kid, you never think they'll ever be gone - 'you have to keep the music alive, the Carter Family songs, and add your own songs.'

I'd had three husbands by 23. The second was a songwriter who couldn't handle the fact the little lady was doing better than him.

If someone asked me to do something I didn't want to do or didn't think was right, I wouldn't do it.

I love to be surrounded by nature.

I like to do one thing at a time and do it to the best of my ability.

I've matured as a writer and human being. I've got some wisdom under my belt.

Working with Mellencamp, I made new fans, people that may have never heard of me. They may have heard I was related to the Carter Family or Johnny Cash somehow, but what they got was pure Carlene.

I challenged myself to carry on the style of guitar that my grandmother did: the Carter scratch.

One good thing is I was instilled with really good values. My mom treats everyone the same.

There was a period where I was a little scared that I'd blown my chance.

I always knew I would make the record that I made in 'Carter Girl.'

The first five albums I did, I tried a little bit of everything. I was trying not to conform at all.

Grandma and Mama showed me that you always have to give as much as you can, no matter what.

My songs are about who I am.

I can laugh and cry at the drop of a freakin' hat - all at the same time.

I've always been one to throw caution to the wind, and my motto has been, 'Never have a dull moment.' Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but I don't think I'd have it much differently.

Eccentricity has never been discouraged in our family.

I was thinking about it: so many of my stories are about my family life, not about being related to a lot of famous people. That's my grandma, that's my mama, my daddy, my aunt, my uncle, my stepdaddy. I'd probably tell them even if they weren't well known.

MusiCares was really good to me. I can't say enough how MusiCares helps other people. They really, really helped me. They have the greatest groups and support for musicians in recovery.

My grandma passed in '78, and that's the year I started recording. It's also the year that my dad retired from his career. So it's funny how torches get passed on, and you feel a responsibility to be connected to the music that they did and try to carry it on in your own way.

Lots of girls marry at 16 in Tennessee.

I'm kind of a perfectionist about my songwriting. If I don't mean it, I don't think it's any good.

I moved back to Tennessee in '86 or '87. That's when I worked with the Carter Family because I really wanted to understand my roots.

My Smiths, my Carters, the Cashes - everybody embraced me and held my arms up when I couldn't do it myself.

I believe everything falls into place as it's supposed to.

I'm pretty much an open book.

If someone gets married at 15, they're either dumb or pregnant. I was both.

I've always wanted to make records that rock like hell. But also, I've never wanted to compromise that Country place deep inside.

There are no rules when it comes to songwriting, so I'd turn Carter family songs from the 1930s into pop songs.

I don't know how I got out of some of the scrapes I was in. But I know that there's some sort of plan.

Everyone deals with loss. I'm no different, but we all find our ways of coming through things. Is it tough? Of course, but you find the strength to push on through.

I don't really have any ditties left in me anymore.

I've always been one of those people - once I start something, I have to get it all out, because it gets me.

Don't try to be like somebody else. You'll be miserable. You need to be yourself, and don't ever get a big head.

It's all for a reason and all happened the way it was supposed to happen.

Musically, I always wanted to experiment.

My mother has always been open about all kinds of music and entertainment. She wanted us to see that it was not just country music and the Grand Ole Opry.

I think, looking back, there was a lot of fear of success in me. When you are successful, you have to keep it up... it requires you to be responsible, and I had been pretty irresponsible.

Basically, I grew up watching Carter girls on stage, watching my grandmother, my mom and my aunts perform. They used to say, 'Okay, Carter girls, you're on!'

Whenever I've not known what to do, I've always gone back to the Carter Family because there was nothing like singing with my aunts and my mom to my grandma.

I wanted to play rocking country music, and when I started out in the late Seventies, it took me a couple of albums to figure out how to do that.

Be yourself. And every person is unique.

I've always had wanderlust to try and do different things, but I always return to the music of the Carter family.

I've had a few ditty hits.

I'm a bubbling brew of emotions, but mostly, I'm an optimistic person.

I fly from the seat of my pants, basically.

I was always in a big hurry to do everything. Before I was 20, I was married twice and had two kids. But I don't regret any of it. I learned a lot about myself. I had a lot to say for someone my age, real early on.

I always wanted to be the rockin'est country chick in the universe.

It's a matriarchal family, the Carters. A.P. was the original head of the Carter family, but the women were always strong. There were no questions asked in that regard; you had better be strong.

I always have to just be myself. Anything else, I'm not happy, and it comes out musically.

I have great stories. I am going to write a book.

I like things all shined up and rocking with hooky pop choruses.

I got into photography when my kids were little, and I continued talking pictures over the years.

I started playing piano when I was 6, ukulele at 7.

I'm really about my family and really proud of being a Carter.

In the late '70s, I was falling into the middle lane. I was way too country to be rock, and way too rock to be a country act.

Sometimes, it's good to stick to your guns.

I just know what I want, and I'm willing to butt heads with folks to get it.