Willie Nelson Quotes

I don't like to think too far ahead.

I started out writing poems before I figured to put melodies to them and play the guitar. Somewhere, there's a book out there on all those early songs and poems. I hope no one ever finds it. I don't think it's my finest work.

If you start out looking at somebody, wondering whether he's good or bad, I think you're starting out in the wrong direction. I think we're all good and we're all bad.

My granddaddy died when I was about 6 years old, I think. And my grandmother took a job cooking in the school lunchroom. So she did great. She made $18 a week.

I text and email my friends and family a lot, but that's about the extent of my high-tech-etude.

There's a lot of money in selling marijuana. If you can do it legally, that's good. Why should all the criminals make the money? This is what people are thinking. If it's happening, if it's going to be legal, let's tax it and regulate it, like we do with everything else and make some money off this. I think that's one reason why people are talking this a little more seriously.

All I do is play music and golf - which one do you want me to give up?

In the twilight glow I see her, blue eyes crying in the rain. As we kissed goodbye and parted, I knew we'd never meet again.

I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?

I didn't come here and I ain't leavin'.

When I'm driving the highway by myself is when I write best.

I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad.

I used to work in the cotton fields a lot when I was young. There were a lot of African Americans working out there. A lot of Mexicans - the blacks and the whites and the Mexicans, all out there singing, and it was like an opera in the cotton fields, and I can still hear it in the music that I write and play today.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by our desires for material things, but the fact is, most of us know what we truly value. Sometimes we just need a little reminder.

If you go to a magic show, you don't want to see logic.

I like to stick with music I know I can play. I love classical, but I don't think I could ever play it. I'm just not qualified.

I take it not only a day at a time, but a moment at a time, and keep it at that pace. If you can be happy right now, then you'll always be happy, because it's always in the now

I guess if you can't sing, you better have a style!

Little things I should have said and done I just never took the time You were always on my mind

I'm a romantic slob!

We've already been reincarnated about a million times, maybe. It doesn't make sense any other way.

Those people out there like good music. They don't stop and ask themselves, 'Is it country or rock and roll?' If they like it, they will tell you.

I don't smoke as many joints as I used to.

Waylon Jennings and I had a lot of fun recording together.

But if you think of all the people who don't like me, just think of all the millions who've never heard of me!

We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.

When I was out in the bars drinking and fighting I was a little bit less of a peacemaker than I would be if I'd had a coupla hits of a joint and gone and laid down somewhere.

When you're singing, you're using extra muscles, and it requires a lot of exercise and breathing. You can't do that if you're a sissy. If I have any fitness advice for people, I'd tell them to sing more. It's good therapy, too.

You want to be a good parent and you want to be a friend, and it's hard to be both. You have to balance it as well as you can.

I don't believe in adhering to any rules I don't support and I didn't vote for. To hell with what people think. Just be who you are and you'll be happy.

There's a freedom you begin to feel the closer you get to Austin, Texas.

When I see someone I think is cool, he's a pretty well-adjusted individual. He's not too affected one way or the other by what's happening, no matter what's going through his mind.

I got in at 2 with a 10, and woke up at 10 with a 2.

One thing I learned is that the mind, rather than being the master, should be the servant of the heart.

Gay or straight? So what? It doesn't matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people regardless.

I'm not prejudiced in any way that I can think of. That's just not the guy I am.

Truth be told, these fuckers don't know their elbows from their assholes.

Just can't wait to get on the road again

And as far as guitars go, I loved Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West's stuff.

Be gentle with your words - you can't take them back.

There's so many things going on in the world, Babies dying. Mothers crying. How much oil is one human life worth. And what ever happened to peace on earth.

Rather than trying to put an end to Eminem or some other rapper, politicians should think about why they're rapping. It's easier to try to censor some kid who's swearing about poverty than it is to stop the poverty.

I would like to see more airplay for all artists, no matter what age. I think there's a lot of money being spent toward the young guys, but a lot of the older guys are the ones who blazed the trail for those young guys.

I'm crazy for trying, crazy for crying, and I'm crazy for loving you.

When I left Nashville I went to Texas because that's where I came from, and because I was playing in Texas a lot in different places. And I saw hippies and rednecks drinking beer together and smoking dope together and having a good time together and I knew it was possible to get all groups of people together - long hair, short hair, no hair - and music would bring them together.

The first time I got onstage was when I was about 5 years old. It was at a church social, and I had a poem to recite.

I am not a pig farmer. The pigs had a great time, but I didn't make any money.

I think innately knew that music draws people together and that good music is liked by almost everybody.

If you're not crazy there's something wrong with you.
Willie Nelson

Oh, I think it's definitely spiritual. All music is. I think it's maybe one of the highest forms of spirituality.

How would you like to bite that in the ass, develop lock jaw and be dragged to death?

More and more people are finding out the benefits of it - hemp and marijuana. The more they delve into it and research it, the more they realize, Hey wait a minute, we should give this another look.

You could make any song sound creepy if you wanted. It's all about the inflection.

Everything about Sinatra was good. He had the ability to pick great songs, and once Sinatra had sung them, that pretty much was it. He pretty much put his stamp on everything.

I believe in looseness.

Life and water are inseparable. Three quarters of the earth's surface is covered by water, just as three quarters of your body is made up of water. Even in the driest desert where rain may come just once every few years, the cycles of life are based on waiting for the arrival of water. Our bodies are not so patient.
Every cell in your body needs water to survive, and that means that drinking plenty of clean, fresh water can make you stronger healthier and smarter. Water carries oxygen and fuel to your cells, lubricates your joints, regulates your body temperature, and plays a key roll in just about every function of your body.
My number one roadie, POODIE, says, You can't make a turd without grease.

Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.

There's a great enthusiasm for good country music all over the world.

A frozen river is not a dry one, it's just a still river on the surface but is still moving, and so am my winter writing.

Cruelty is all out of ignorance. If you knew what was in store for you, you wouldn't hurt anybody, because whatever you do comes back much more forceful than you send it out.

Like anything else, you can use the Internet for good or ill. You can get out of it what you want to. There's no evil about it. The way I see it, it's a liberation.

Writing books is fun because after I do a show for a couple hours, I'm in a bus for 22 hours. It's not hard for me to look out the window and tell a joke here and there.

Heard you told him that you'd love him 'til the end of time. Now that's the same thing that you told me.

The life I love is making music with my friends.

I don't remember Moses writing, 'Thou shalt not kill.. unless you think you have a good reason.

Every now and then I'll think of something to put back in the show. I just kind of play it off the top of my head. If I do it that way it keeps it kinda fresh.

Small family farmers are the only things that can save us because they take care of the land. Future farmers of America are going to be our heroes. Same with biodiesel, either way we need small family saustainable and organic farmers.

It doesn't hurt to feel sad from time to time.

Ninety-nine percent of the world's lovers are not with their first choice. That's what makes the jukebox play.

I think Ray Charles did as much as anybody when he did his country music album. Ray Charles broke down borders and showed the similarities between country music and R&B.

You could try to live monogamously. Good luck.

Don't try to change anybody. And they should let you be yourself, 'You loved me when you met me, so let's keep going!'

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

As long as there's a few farmers out there, we'll keep fighting for them.

Freedom is control in your own life. I have more control now than in the past, and I'm learning the value of saying no. That's very important.

When it's on us, seems like the storm will never pass. But it always does.

The whole house came up and I came up with it ... I was just praying to the Lord to take care of me.

Freedom is control in your own life.

I use vaporizers a lot. It cuts down on the heat and the smoke. And for a singer that's not a bad idea.

I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times.

I don't think any person has any special knowledge about what God has planned for me and you any more than me and you do.

I believe that all roads lead to the same place - and that is wherever all roads lead to.

In church I was told that if I so much as smoked a cigarette or tasted alcohol, I'd be damned in hell for all eternity[ ... ]it didn't take long for me to start thinking that sounded all wrong [ ... ]I didn't cotton to the idea that your religion should be flaunted to other people. Your religion is for you, and is best kept close to your heart.

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.

Just take what you need from the ladies and leave them.

Marijuana is like sex. If I don't do it every day, I get a headache. I think marijuana should be recognized for what it is, as a medicine, an herb that grows in the ground. If you need it, use it.

Air you breathe is bad for your lungs so you've got to careful and don't overdue any bad air. Too much pot, too much anything is not good. Your lung is a piece of flesh, a piece of bone. You can injure it.

Sadly, there are more wild horses in holding pens than in the wild.

Well, it's a Bloody Mary morning, my baby left without warning.

Love is like a dying ember, only memories remain.

I just enjoy both working and not working.

Family farmers are small farmers who love the land. They're still not getting enough money for their product and are rapidly losing their battle to stay in business. By helping the American family farmer, we will in turn help ourselves out of the economic hole that we find ourselves in today. It doesn't really matter how we got here; the point is, we have to dig our way out.

I see this [biodiesel] as a way for the farmer to grow fuel and food and put him back in business again

Americans don't eat horses. They are not raised as food animals and they are treated with chemicals that render them unsafe for consumption. The regulations needed to change their status to "food animals" would cripple every aspect of the horse industry as we know it. Plus, it would be wrong.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

I was influenced a lot by those around me - there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields.

You will never find happiness until you stop looking for it.

There are more old drunks than there are old doctors.

Horses were a way to travel to get to where we are today, and it is our job to protect them.

When I would sell encyclopedias, I would drive down the road looking for a house with a swing set in the back, and I'd say, "Oh, those folks got kids. They need some books." I'd knock on their door and sell them a set of encyclopedias, and those books were from $300 to $600. I'd look around the house, and if there wasn't that much furniture in the house, I felt a little bad about selling a $600 set of books to people who couldn't afford a couch. So I didn't last at that job very long.