A lot of people have said I’d have probably done better in my career if I hadn’t looked so cheap and gaudy. But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn’t be blamed because you want to look pretty.
Children have always responded to me because I have that cartoon-character look.
Every day I pray about all I do.
I can’t do nothing just a little.
I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.
I do remember how it was to be poor. I do remember that in my early years, we had to grow and raise all of our food, even our animals. And I remember in my early life, we didn’t even have electricity. So it was very, very hard times then.
I don’t have anything to say about other people’s art and their work.
I feel that sin and evil are the negative part of you, and I think it’s like a battery: you’ve got to have the negative and the positive in order to be a complete person.
I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it’s just depressing to me. The poor little kids.
I have a big gay and lesbian following and they’ve been very loyal and kind to me.
I have a tendency to be awfully big-hearted and it’s very hard for me to say no, even when I need to.
I have surrounded myself with very smart people.
I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.
I know who I am, I know what I can and can’t do. I know what I will and won’t do. I know what I’m capable of and I don’t agree to do things that I don’t think I can pull off.
I look at myself like a show dog. I’ve got to keep her clipped and trimmed and in good shape.
I look just like the girls next door… if you happen to live next door to an amusement park.
I love story songs because I’ve always loved books.
I love to flirt, and I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.
I modeled my looks on the town tramp.
I still close my eyes and go home – I can always draw from that.
I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.
I think I became more productive through not having children. I never really had the desire to have them. My husband didn’t want them either, so it worked out well.
I think I’ve got my business notions and my sense for that sort of thing from my dad. My dad never had a chance to go to school. He couldn’t read and write. But he was so smart. He was just one of those people that could just make the most of anything and everything that he had to work with.
I think that I know the value of a dollar.
I think that I’m perfect.
I wanted to be the first woman to burn her bra, but it would have taken the fire department four days to put it out.
I was always a junk food person, still am.
I was probably 7 years old when I started playing the guitar and writing some serious songs.
I was the first woman to burn my bra – it took the fire department four days to put it out.
I write for myself things that I’ve gone through.
I’m a workin’ girl.
I’m almost like three people. There’s me the, Dolly, the person. There’s me, the star. And then there’s me, the manager.
I’m gonna be making records anyway, even if I had to sell ’em out of the trunk of my car. I’m that kind of musician and singer.
I’m just a simple country girl.
I’m not a politician. And I don’t want to be.
I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.
I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.
I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb… and I also know that I’m not blonde.
I’m not trying to be fashionable. Never was!
I’m old enough and cranky enough now that if someone tried to tell me what to do, I’d tell them where to put it.
I’ve been around longer than most of my fans have been alive.
I’ve been very fortunate.
I’ve copyrighted 3,000 songs.
I’ve enjoyed all the parts of my career.
I’ve never had a divorce, but I’ve seen so many of my friends, my sister, my family go through that stuff, so I try to write for the people that can’t write about it. I take on their sorrow, so I’m able to kind of express it, or their joy.
I’ve tried different things through the years to get some play on mainstream. I’ll try to tailor-make it.
If I hadn’t been a woman, I’d be a drag queen for sure. I like all that flair and I’d be dressing up in them high heels and putting on the big hair. I’d be like Ru Paul.
If I see something sagging, bagging or dragging I’ll get it nipped, tucked or sucked.
If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.
If you talk bad about country music, it’s like saying bad things about my momma. Them’s fightin’ words.
It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.
It’s a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I’d be a drag queen.
My grandpa was a preacher.
My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.
My husband calls me ‘catfish.’ He says I’m all mouth and no brains.
My life has been very full.
My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I’m old.
My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.
Oh, I can spot a phoney a mile away.
People get a kick out of my stupidity.
People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.
Plastic surgeons are always making mountains out of molehills.
Stop this attitude that older people ain’t any good anymore! We’re as good as we ever were – if we ever were any good.
Storms make trees take deeper roots.
The only way I’d be caught without makeup is if my radio fell in the bathtub while I was taking a bath and electrocuted me and I was in between makeup at home. I hope my husband would slap a little lipstick on me before he took me to the morgue.
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.
You know, I look like a woman but I think like a man. And in this world of business, that has helped me a lot. Because by the time they think that I don’t know what’s goin’ on, I then got the money, and gone.
You’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap!
You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.
