I never fixed a story. I didn't make judgments, I let the listener make judgments. When I got to the end of the story, if it had a moral, I let the listener find it.

My best album is called In Search Of A Song. That was my best shot right there. My finest hour, as they say. I could listen to the whole thing all the way through. There's nothing really crammed into it.

Whiskey's to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.

I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.

Religion is a strange, wonderful thing. More crimes have been committed in the name of righteousness than any other notion.

When you retire, it's a place in life, a part of the journey. You just don't quit work; you develop an attitude where you can do what you please.

The first guy who came up with the concept of religion was sitting out under a tree. I'm sure of that.

Young kids are doing the same thing I did, but they're doing it differently. They don't do brain surgery the way they used to do it either.

I'm a very comfortable and happy-go-lucky old man. I never wanted to be great, because I'd just get worried.

If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I'd figure her career was as dead as mine!

The best compliment I ever had is, one day I was in Nashville, some disc jockey said, Hey, that sounds like a Tom T. Hall song. Up until then there hadn't been any such thing.

After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

Faulkner was almost oriental. I never got into Faulkner.

I am a fan of history.

I had the notion that I wanted to write the great dirty American novel, so I went to Roanoke College on the GI Bill.

I have had hundreds of people work for me over the years, and I don't think I ever fired anybody.

I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.

I never hid out. I was never big enough a star.

I took up a sort of a hobby of just hanging around the local library. I'd pick out an author and I would read all their books.

I was quite a reader before I became a writer.

I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.

It used to be that you'd have a song recorded by a major country artist and if it was a hit, you could buy a car. Now you can buy a dealership.

My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.