Top 625 Quotes & Sayings by Dolly Parton - Page 9

You'll pay the highest price on back roads and in back seats and in a cheap highway motel. But what's a few more strangers in a life of nothing else.

As a songwriter, you're allowed to write anything, and as a person, I am all colors in the rainbow. I've been through everything, you know, so I can write a positive song like 'Better Get to Livin'' because that's my attitude. But that doesn't mean I'm happy all the time. You can't be a deep and serious songwriter without feelings. You kinda have to live with your feelings out on your sleeve and get hurt more than most people. The fear I might get hurt means I might not be able to write another song.

I have always been a firm believer in working hard for what is right and for making your own breaks if you want things to change.

If there's a heaven, I hope to hell I go!

I figure if I keep my health, I have no intention of retiring. I love to work. I want to be like Bob Hope. I want to keep on going out and doing what I love to do. Of course, I'm no Bob Hope, but I mean that feeling that you never are old and have things to offer and can be useful to somebody. I always want to be useful, I have no intentions of retiring unless I should get sick or something should happen to my husband. Other than that I'm going to work until I fall over.

I always loved that old song Banks of the Ohio - it was always such a man's song, so I've always wanted to record it.

George Jones was my all time favorite singer and one of my favorite people in the world.

It doesn't bother me when someone calls me a 'dumb blonde.' I'm neither dumb or blonde.

I went to bed hungry many nights as a child. It was a Dream that dressed me up when I was ragged, and it was a Dream that filled me up when I was hungry. Now it's my Dream to see that no child in this world ever goes hungry, certainly not here in America, the most bountiful country in the world. We can do better...we must!

People say you shouldn't have plastic surgery because if God wanted you another way he would have made you that way, but I say that's a lot of crock. If God didn't want plastic surgeons, he wouldn't have given them hands to work with.

I may look fake but I'm real where it counts.

I'm a show-off basically... always have been.

Johnny Cash has only passed into the greater light. He will only become more important in this industry as time goes by.

No, I can't do rap music...

I think the fact that I look totally artificial, but I am totally real, has its own kind of magic in it.

When the new country came out ten to 15 years ago, people my age were almost too old. But it never stopped me. I never stopped writing. I never stopped recording.

I feel fortunate that I've had a lot of songs recorded by other people, because I take my songwriting very seriously. It's only those people that have followed me over the years and really know my work that know how serious I am about all of it - including the way I look. You can't take my high heels from me, you can't have my long fingernails, you can't take all this hair from me, because it's part of this thing that I've become. I wouldn't want to give any of it up. Do I have to be ugly to be a songwriter? This is the way I am, and it's what I choose to be.

They let you dream just to watch them shatter, you're just a step on the boss man's ladder.

You can't just will your dreams to come true. You have to work hard. You have to give 'em wings, arms, legs...whatever it takes to make your dreams come true.

Some things are strange to me, and some things are odd. But I don't condemn. If you can accept me, I can accept you.

Hello God, if we are still on speaking terms, can you help me?

Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.

If I should stay I would only be in your way So I'll go, but I know I'll think of you each step of the way And I will always love you I will always love you Bitter sweet Memories That's all I am taking with me Good-bye. Please don't cry We both know that I'm not What you need But I will always love you I will always love you.

We give scholarships to high school kids and a new library of books to every preschool child in the county where I was born. I didn't have books at home so I did all my reading at school. I love books and I believe that helping kids to read gives them a great start in life.

My first job was singing on the Cas Walker radio show in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was about 10 years old and I thought it was big time.

lots of women buy just as many wigs and makeup things as I do ... They just don't wear them all at the same time.

After you reach a certain age, they think you’re over. Well, I will never be over. I’ll be making records if I have to sell them out of the trunk of my car. I’ve done that in my past, and I’d do it again.

Truth is, I wouldn't know a gigabyte from a snakebite.

I love watching keep-fit videos while munching chocolate chip cookies.

In the early days, Porter Wagoner would not exactly scold me, but he's say, 'You're writing too many damn verses. You're makin' these songs too damn long.' And I'd say, 'Yeah, but I'm tellin' a story. I have a story to tell.' And he'd say, 'Well, you're not going to get it on the radio.' If I start writing a song, I'm writing it for a reason. People would say that I had to have two verses, and a chorus, and a bridge. I tried to learn that formula.

When you come from where I come from, if anyone in the family makes it out, the others kind of come with you.

Some people say that less is more. But I think more is more.

If I could get their attention long enough, I felt they would see beneath the boobs and find the heart, and that they would see beneath the wig and find the brains. I think one big part of whatever appeal I possess is the fact that I look totally one way and that I am totally another. I look artificial, but I'm not.

If we all climb together, we could climb the highest hill.

Wouldn't it be something if we could have things we love in abudance without their losing that special attraction the want of them held for us.

Working nine to five, what way to earn a living. Barely getting by... It's all taking and no giving. They use just your mind and they never give you credit. It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it!

The bible says, 'All things are possible.' I believe that.

I believe in my cosmetics line. There are plenty of charities for the homeless. Isn't it time someone helped the homely?

People always ask me if they're mine. Yes, they are... all bought and paid for.

You are the song of every bird, you are the poet's every word, every artist's picture, every writer's play.

I'm in showbiz. I look at my boobs like they're show horses or show dogs. You've got to keep them groomed.

Poor little Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan... If those little girls slept with as many men as they say in the tabloids, why their little butts would have more fingerprints than the FBI! I kinda feel sorry for them. We should give those two a break.

Anyone who knows or cares anything about real country music will agree that George Jones is the voice of it.

When people say to me less is more I reply, 'More is more'.

Years ago when I first started being a big star I had fans that were fanatical. It was when "Jolene" was a big hit.

Music, I suppose, will be the thing that sustains me in the time of my life when I am too old for sex and not quite ready to meet God. It has always been an essential part of me.

Wildflowers don't care where they grow.

Leave something good in every day.

People don't realize that, you know, we have - "we" meaning people in show business have the same problems as everybody else. Money don't change that. Fame don't change that. Sometimes that brings on more problems. You know, it's just a - different kind of problems. As they say, money ain't everything.

Music is my personal addiction. So much of everything I've done has only been to open more doors for the music itself. It all gets back to the fact that I am, first of all, a songwriter and a singer.

[On being overweight:] If I tried to haul ass, I would have to make two trips.

I'm not like a real person. I love being artificial. I think there's a little magic in the fact that I'm so totally real, but look so artificial at the same time.

My music is so mine, it's hard to turn it over to someone else. I have to be really involved in the production. It's like someone else taking care of your kids - if they don't treat them well, you're going to be pissed off. I'm actually co-producing [Backwoods] with my guitar player of 20 years, Kent Wells. We make a good combination... I think we're going to have a real good record.

That traveling man was a two time lover, he took my love, then he took my mother.

People think I'm as shallow and superficial as I look, and it's a surprise when they find out, sure enough, I am.

I just can't stand to look plain, 'cause that don't fit my personality. I may be a very artificial-looking person, but the good news is, I'm very real on the inside.

I never want anything more than what's fair. The problem is, I never want anything less either. In the old-boy school of business, if a woman walks away from the table with what's rightfully hers, the man feels screwed.

One is only poor, only if they choose to be.

I've never been the big recording star I'd love to be some day. I've had lots of hits off and on through the years but I've never had the success of other artists - one hit after another back-to-back-to-back and big hits, where every song is going to be number one. I'm not greedy or nothing. I just want everything. Is there something wrong with that?

I'm in the public eye, so I don't care who knows what I get done. If I see something sagging, dragging, or bagging, I get it sucked, tucked, or plucked.