If God made anything better than women, I think he kept it for himself.
Kris Kristofferson
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
Never give up, which is the lesson I learned from boxing. As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one doesn't cancel out the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.
I feel like I'm kind of lazy, but I keep the yard looking good.
Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free.
There was a film that really affected me, 'La Strada' by Fellini, where Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina travel around on his little motorcycle thing.
I enjoy looking back on my life. I'm thinking seriously about starting to write about it.
I've come to appreciate how special a song is compared to other art forms, because you can carry it around in your head and your heart, and it remains part of you. It just comes as natural as a bird to me, always did. It's the way singer-songwriters make sense of our lives.
Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. 'Cause that's all that matters in the end.
I was working the Gulf of Mexico on oil rigs, flying helicopters. I'd lost my family to my years of failing as a songwriter. All I had were bills, child support, and grief. And I was about to get fired for not letting 24 hours go between the throttle and the bottle. It looked like I'd trashed my act. But there was something liberating about it.
If you can't get out of something, get into it.
The first movie I was ever on was a Dennis Hopper film down in Peru.
I was in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas. I've argued for Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, the United Farm Workers. I've been a radical for a long time. I guess it's too bad. I'd be more marketable as a right-wing redneck. But I got into this to tell the truth as I saw it.
'Heaven's Gate' was based on a true story about the cattle people: the people who had the money turned on the settlers who were in the area. And it was mainly a defense of their behavior. And the cattlemen's association had just about declared war on these people who were poaching cattle, and because they were mainly immigrants.
I boxed in Golden Gloves at Oxford and still know how to throw a straight left jab.
You don't paddle against the current, you paddle with it. And if you get good at it, you throw away the oars.
I have no regrets. I feel very grateful for the life that I had - you know, family I live with; and I've been doing work that I love, ever since I came to Nashville.
If God made anything better than women, he kept it for himself.
I hope that I'll keep being creative until they throw dirt on me.
I think I'm a much better father as an older man than I was with my first kids. Occasionally, I have to yell at the little guys, but they don't take me seriously. 'Listen to the old guy,' they say. 'Isn't he great? He's mad.'
I feel so lucky to have lived the life that I did and to be surrounded by the people I love. I've got eight kids, and they're always laughing all the time. It's like music to my ears. I think that my frame of mind these days is probably happier than I've ever been, which is kind of odd, coming close to the finish line.
I wish my memory weren't so bad. They tell me it's from all the football and boxing and the concussions that I got.
If it hadn't been for Johnny Cash, I'd probably have been a Nashville songwriter because that's what I had done for almost five years.
Looking back, I'm surprised I had the nerve to do it, but I'm glad I did. Performing the songs and performing in film was just a part of my personality, just like football and boxing at one point in my life. I was able to lose myself in both of them, and that was a good feeling.
I had fought for my independence and fought for my freedom to do as I chose.
I don't think I'm that good a singer. I can't think of a song that I've written that I don't like the way somebody else sings it better.
Freedom is just another word: It seems to get truer the older I get.
There's a time where people were out holding posters in protest outside shows I was doing, and thankfully, we've moved past that. And a lot of country stations wouldn't play me. They were more conservative than I was.
They say the first thing to go is your legs, then it's your reflexes, then it's your friends.
Havin' Dylan cover one of your songs is like being a playwright and having Shakespeare act in your play.
I've had a life of all kinds of experiences - most of them good. And I've got eight kids and a wife that puts up with everything I do and keeps me out of trouble.
I have a special place in my heart for Nashville because it saved my life back in the day.
I remember having a lot of Josh White albums. Johnny Cash. Elvis. I loved the Coasters.
There are points in your life, especially if you have creative ambitions, where selfishness is necessary.
The great thing about Nashville back in the day was that the old guys hung out where the young guys were. The established writers like Harlan Howard and Jack Clement gave us encouragement and passed the guitar, you know? Chet Atkins let me sit in on his sessions. Everybody was good to us, and everybody loved the music.
I used to think that my songs were the best things that I would leave behind me. And I definitely think my kids are now. For starters, they're writing better songs than I was at their age.
Look at me! I can go from 'Donny and Marie' to Sam Peckinpah to Radio City Music Hall in one week.
To me, if you love it enough to devote your life to it, then you're doing the right thing.
When I was thirty, and a long time after that, I felt like I had to leave home to do what I had to do. Now, it's just the opposite.
I am grateful every morning I wake up. I've a big family full of kids, who laugh all the time and love each other.
I grew up listening to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, so arriving in Nashville in the '60s was really exciting for me.
I always had to wait until something hit me, and I could write it. But when I would cut an album, to me it represented the time that I spent since the last one. Just the way I was looking at the world.
I had a list of rules I made up one time. It says: Tell the truth, sing with passion, work with laughter, and love with heart. Those are good to start with, anyway.
It's always embarrassing when somebody does something praiseworthy of you.
What really makes me happy now is my home. I know that I have that to lose. But I don't see losing it. And I don't care if I never do another movie. And I don't care if I never get back on the road. I like to think that I'm gonna do that. But if I don't, I can live with that.
Right after I resigned from the Army in 1965, I flew helicopters for oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. I flew personnel from rig to rig, and I'd live on a platform out at sea.
I grew up in a time when people believed in duty, honor and country. My grandfathers were both officers. My father was a General in the Air Force. My brother and I were both in the Army. I've always felt a kinship with soldiers; I think it's possible to support the warrior and be against the war.
The most valuable thing to me seems to be time, and with time, I can be great. I have been... and I will be.
I got scars on my face that tell some kind of story. I'm looking in the mirror, and I got one scar that's really two scars - half from a baseball bat and half from playing football in college. I'll tell you, though, after a while, your face gets so wrinkled up you can hardly see them.
The older I get, the less conservative I become.
