“Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones and pray for the ones who don’t know?”

I’m just looking for a mixture of songs and topics that aren’t the same thing over and over.

Oklahoma’s always been good to me.

You think a lot of people get to be big stars and get a little crazy.

Making music is still what keeps a fire going on in me.

I think I’ve always approached making albums pretty much the same way.

The older you are, I think you realize what you enjoy and what you don’t need, what wears you out and what’s important.

If you just do 50 to 60 shows a year, it’s not that much time away from home.

But most of the ones I’ve ever met have always been surprisingly normal, and I’ve enjoyed that.

Just try to do music that you like and you are proud of and not just whatever you think it’s going to take to get you on the radio.

Everybody always thinks that. But in just about every album I’ve ever had has been about 50-50 songs I’ve written or co-written and other people’s songs.

I don’t like politics, hypocrites, folks with poodles.

Growing up in Georgia, I used to think people up north or out west were so different. They’re really not.

You just write about things that happen.

Looks can go, fads can go, but a good song lasts forever.

What I enjoy doing more than anything is.

All you hear about on the news is all the bad stuff everyday, but what was refreshing to me was after that, you saw how many good people there are out there.

Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country.

The New York that Frank Sinatra sang about, people will never know that place. The New Orleans that Louis Armstrong sang about is the New Orleans that’s still there – it’s preserved.

I pray before I go into the operating room for every case, and I ask him to give me wisdom, to help me to know what to do – and not only for operating, but for everything.

But you know what? There’s far more pain involved in rolling over, far more pain in hiding.

I don’t know anything about baseball.

The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.

One does not know where love will take you.

I have found that the greatest help in meeting any problem with decency and self-respect and whatever courage is demanded, is to know where you yourself stand. That is, to have in words what you believe and are acting from.