Dolly Parton Quotes

I modelled my looks on the town tramp.

I wear make-up, and it gets a little bit thicker every year.

I always had a very open mind and a very open heart. I always look for the good in everybody and the God in everybody. I play to that. And I just love people. I love the difference in people. I love getting to know people. I appreciate getting accepted myself, because I know I'm unusual. And I love the unusual in other people.

My nails are my rhythm section when I'm writing a song all alone. Some day, I may cut an album, just me and my nails.

That little Miley Cyrus ... she's like a little Elvis. The kids love her because she's Hannah Montana, but what people don't realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter. She writes songs like she's 40 years old!

Music, I suppose, will be the thing that sustains me in the time of my life when I am too old for sex and not quite ready to meet God. It has always been an essential part of me.

God and I have a great relationship, but we both see other people.

Some people say that less is more. But I think more is more.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

I was approached about having my own network many, many years ago. There were some people who wanted to start up a network, and I didn't want to get that involved in the business aspect of it.

You don't need to buy expensive cosmetics; almost anything will do if you know how to apply it.

Sometimes when I'm under pressure, if I think somebody is expecting stuff from me, I'll do better than if I was just left on my own. I can sit down - I'm a skilled writer, I've been doing it all my life - and I can get down to it.

I have surrounded myself with very smart people.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

After momma gave birth to 12 of us kids, we put her up on a pedestal. It was mostly to keep Daddy away from her.

One day I was standing with my stage manager, Sandy Prudden, and Buddy Sheffield watching as Kermit the Frog (with the help of the late Jim Henson) sweetly sang a song. Sandy was always a big joker. He sidled up to me and said, "Isn't it amazing the way Kermit can sing like that with somebody's hand up his ass." Without missing a beat, I came back with, "Shoot, that ain't nothin'. I did that for seven years on the 'The Porter Wagoner Show.

A peacock that rests on his feathers is just another turkey.

Living in America and, of course, just being women in general, we've got more strength than we think we do.

I may look fake but I'm real where it counts.

Sometimes a song just has to cater to whatever's goin' on. A well-written song is a song that stays true to the subject.

When I do listen to music, I'm more prone to listen to the people I've always listened to: George Jones, Otis Redding, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.

There are some loony people in this world!

It doesn't bother me when someone calls me a 'dumb blonde.' I'm neither dumb or blonde.

I never, ever get involved in politics. With politics you are not allowed to be honest. I don't have time to deal with that. I would rather work with kids.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares ... if you don't really work them.

I'm no natural beauty. If I'm gonna have any looks at all, I'm gonna have to create them.

I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

I'm a showgirl, as you can tell. I'm ever ready.

The hardest exercise for most of us fat people is that one where we push our chairback from the dinner table.

I thank God for my failures. Maybe not at the time but after some reflection. I never feel like a failure just because something I tried has failed.

My mother was always fascinated with the fact that I could rhyme so much stuff.

That traveling man was a two time lover, he took my love, then he took my mother.

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.

People just overshoot trying to find God. They're going outside and trying everything. They don't realize that it's right inside themselves.

I think people take me as seriously as I want them to. They take me as seriously as I take myself - let's put it that way.

My music is so mine, it's hard to turn it over to someone else. I have to be really involved in the production. It's like someone else taking care of your kids - if they don't treat them well, you're going to be pissed off. I'm actually co-producing [Backwoods] with my guitar player of 20 years, Kent Wells. We make a good combination ... I think we're going to have a real good record.

I don't listen to music for fun. I ain't got enough time for fun! I'm always busy writing my own music. I don't try to compete or see what other people are doing.

My lips, I've used collagen. I line my lips with collagen.

I have a tendency to be awfully big-hearted and it's very hard for me to say no, even when I need to.

Sometimes my mouth is a little too big and a little too open and sounds too much like a sailor.

I had to get rich so I could afford to sing like I was poor again.

I don't know what the big deal is about old age. Old people who shine from the inside look 10 to 20 years younger.

Wouldn't it be something if we could have things we love in abudance without their losing that special attraction the want of them held for us.

A positive attitude and a sense of humor go together like biscuits and gravy.

I got kind of scared when I thought they wanted me to do something ... I didn't want to be naked on the front of a magazine unless everybody would know it was a joke. I wouldn't want to be naked even then

Love is something sent from Heaven to worry the Hell out of you.

I'm very short, so I just have to watch my weight because I have a big appetite.

I think that all creative people are a little bit nuts ...

Figure out who you are. Then do it on purpose.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn't get some of that stuff out.

I don't make people bend over backwards, and I don't like that in people. I am definitely no diva.

If there's a heaven, I hope to hell I go!

I always love working with children. I never had children of my own. God has his purposes. God didn't let me have children so everybody's children could be mine. That's kind of how I'm looking at it.

Years ago, when I first started being a big star, I had fans that were fanatical. It was when 'Jolene' was a big hit.

You always want your people to be proud of what you have accomplished.

It's not easy being young. It's hard to know what to do.

I'm always amazed by the people who work on stage who sing night after night, day after day, week in week out.

I always ask God to work through me and let me be a light of some kind and help in this world, so I always pray for that, and I always want to do good.

I try to see the good in everybody, and I don't care who people are as long as they're themselves, whatever that is.

I think your values are always influenced by your family and your community.

I do have a few little tattoos, but they were mostly done to cover scars because I'm so fair.

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.

No one could have been nicer, classier nor better looking than Dick Clark. I've had a crush on him since I was a teenager.

We're afraid to live, because we're afraid of dying.

I pray a lot. I pray that God will show me what to do and will guide me and lead me.

God made me the way that I am and it's my business to be true to that.

I went to bed hungry many nights as a child. It was a Dream that dressed me up when I was ragged, and it was a Dream that filled me up when I was hungry. Now it's my Dream to see that no child in this world ever goes hungry, certainly not here in America, the most bountiful country in the world. We can do better ... we must!

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 can write a song in about an hour if it's a simple country song.

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.

When its family, you tolerate what you'd kill others for.

No, I can't do rap music!

There are certainly a lot of things that still need to change when it comes to women in the workforce.

I prefer my music. I'm more of a one-nighter kind of person than to do a squat-down job for three months or whatever.

Wondering if God loves us when we're cheating? Oh, but why he lets us feel things, if it's wrong.

I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.

I have little bones.

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.

If I see something saggin', baggin', or draggin', I'm gone have it nipped, tucked, or sucked!

Oh, I can spot a phoney a mile away.

Is forever longer than always?

I believe in my cosmetics line. There are plenty of charities for the homeless. Isn't it time someone helped the homely?

When I wake up, I expect things to be good. If they're not, then I try to set about trying to make them as good as I can 'cause I know I'm gonna have to live that day anyway. So why not try to make the most of it if you can? Some days, they pan out a little better than others, but you still gotta always just try.

It's great at this stage in my life to still be in the running, that people appreciate you.

Writing's just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.

A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.

I know my hair is out of the '60's, my clothes are '50's and the shoes I wear are from the '40's. But I like looking like I came out of a fairy tale.

I have tennis shoes with little rhinestones that I slip on if I exercise. But I always wear heels, even around the house. I'm such a short little thing, I can't reach my kitchen cabinets.

There's a lot of rednecks in the country where I grew up.

I think so many people live their whole life in fear and doubt and shame.

The magic is inside you. there ain't no crystal ball

Sevier County is a great area.

I always just thought if you see somebody without a smile, give'em yours!

I'm pretty sure in my older years, I'll be doing old-time flavored folk-mountain music.

It was never a marketing tool. People say that, but I dress this way for the same reasons I did when I first started doing it. It still comes from a serious place inside of me. I get up in the morning, and I think I just look better a certain way I do my makeup. I want to shine, I want to glitter. I'm not getting up thinking, "Oh, this'll get 'em." And I'm not doing it to make a statement. I'm just doing it to look like Dolly - the Dolly that I know and the Dolly that you know.

I had to get rich so I could sing like I was poor again.

They got me busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.

I've struggled enough in my life to be appreciated and understood. I've had to go against all kinds of people through the years just to be myself. I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love. I don't think we should be judgmental. Lord, I've got enough problems of my own to pass judgment on somebody else.

They say somebody's 'street smart.' I feel like, if I got intelligence, it's just a country smart.

I'll be wearing my high heels, even if I'm up to my knees in mud