“If you listen to that song and knew anything about me, you’d say, “Oh yeah, he wrote that about his daughter,” but I try not to write them that they are so specific that they wouldn’t apply to anybody that has a child.”

I think every album you have, especially if it’s done well, you feel like you’re competing with yourself.

They’re just regular people who live in small towns. They grow up and try to raise families and have a job and go to church and play softball. It’s that way everywhere.

Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?

To me, songwriting is the backbone of Nashville.

Half of them I’d hear off the radio and was probably singing the wrong words and didn’t even know it.

The music business doesn’t take up that much of my time.

Everybody was going on about it, so mom started hounding me more.

I have my little antique car collection, and when the weather is pretty I like to get out one of my old cars.

I’m usually just enjoying life.

Love is stolen in the shadows of the night. Though it’s wrong all along, it keeps going on as long as they keep it out of sight.

I have a little route I run down in the country, down Nachez Trace Parkway.

Pour me something tall and strong, make it a Hurricane before I go insane.

When I was in high school, I don’t know that I really had big dreams.

I always try to make the music that I like and think my fans will like.

I don’t write all my stuff.

I could have done a hundred songs, really.

The rule of the game was never assume that anybody, however honorable, would be able to stand up under torture. If Mr. X, who knew where I was, was caught for some reason, I should move.

I love to read poetry but I haven’t written anything that I’m willing to show anybody.

If you don’t get killed, it’s a lucky day for anybody.

I don’t have to explain anything to anybody.

Damn referees, I’ll miss them less than anybody.

Listen, anybody who has a film festival has the right to show what they want.

It is always dangerous to underestimate anybody.

I think people often misunderstand that I work as hard and want things just as badly as anybody else.