“What bothers me most is that I don’t bother you.”

We got a lot of politicians up there on Capital Hill. Ain’t it funny how they prosper while the country stands still?

Highway robbery and white collar crime, and they laugh at the system they beat.

And you’d sure better not be doing it because it’s a way to make a living, ’cause that ain’t always going to be easy. You got to believe it, believe in the music. You got to mean it.

You’ve got to care about the music…You’d better not be doing it for the publicity, the fame or the money.

Don’t you be so nice to me; I fall in love so easily.

You know, in the days when I started, if you had Chet Atkins’ name on your record as a producer and it was on RCA, you could work the road. It didn’t have to be a big hit record, it just had to have that on it.

Was an American archetype, the bad guy with the big heart.

There’s always one more way to do things and that’s your way, and you have a right to try it at least once.

And yet his greatest desire was the simple warmth of love’s fire, cause it’s cold on the dark side of fame.

What I did. I’ve listened to it, and I think it was more a west coast rock thing, you know? But it fit. It was country, but it was my own interpretation of country.

I say, Lord, do right be me, I’m tired of being lonesome, on’ry, and mean.

I ain’t got no reverse. I’ve learned, a little later in life, it works out pretty good to have one every once in a while.

I was king of the mountain for a long time, well, I don’t want that no more.

Lately I’ve heard rumors that the eagle may be lame. Just because I’ve been idle, don’t mean that I’m tame.

This is getting funny, but there ain’t nobody laughing.

He gave us all a mind to think with and to know what’s right or wrong, he is that inner spirit that keeps us strong.

If you love people, you’ll enjoy your life. If you don’t, you won’t love anything you do.

I’ve got enough nerve to do anything!

The idea which we so often hear expressed in the Western world, that’s how they are, that’s how they will always be and they can’t do anything else.

I never keep anything beautiful in the closet.

I took my sports experience to my life on stage. That’s why I’m so disciplined. Playing sports, I was always underestimated. I was never picked first to do anything. This always helped me. It taught me how to push myself.

If you’re going to take the attitude, I don’t think it will work, you will never do anything.

There is many a white man less fortunate and less well equipped than I am. In fact, I have never been able to discover that there was anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient – in America.

I was very lucky because she was the most beautiful woman in the world at the time. I photographed her very quickly, she was not easy as a model, but her beauty transcended anything I had seen before.