Great Throughts Treasury

"We all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere."

"Love knows no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen."

"Just to see you smile I'd do anything that you wanted me to. When all is said and done I'd never count the cost, cause it's worth all that's lost just to see you smile."

"Well, you do what you do and you pay for your sins, but there's no such thing as what might have been. That's a waste of time; drive you outta your mind."

"People always ask me "Son what does it take To reach out and touch your dreams?" To them I always say Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Is it a fire that burns you up inside? How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it? Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming With that one thing on your mind? How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it? Cause if you want it all You've got to lay it all out on the line."

"Time can make a feeling fade, but the memory of a first love never fades away."

"Look deep inside the eyes of a woman, see the man you want to be."

"Better than I was, more than I am. And all of this happened by taking your hand."

"Because being with you makes perfect sense."

"Beyond the picket fences and the oil wells, the happy endings, and the fairy tales, is the reality of shattered lives and broken dreams. We carry on."

"Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again."

"But, yea, I grew up in a strong Baptist background."

"But I was so wrapped up in sports growing up as a kid, that I think I was going to grow to be a pro ball player. But I found out real quick that was not going to happen."

"Country radio went through a time where they were trying to pigeonhole everybody, and trying to make the gap really narrow, and I think that they've opened that up a little bit."

"Everyone should have their own opinion and be able to voice it. No matter what it is. Of course, that does not mean your opinion is always right. But, you're certainly entitled to your opinion."

"Five years ago I figured we were at the top of our game and that was the best it was going to get, but with every album it seems to keep on building on itself."

"Faith leads you in the decisions you make. You don't always pick the right path, but it's there in your conscience."

"How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it? Are you eating, sleeping, dreaming with that one thing on your mind? How bad do you want it? How bad do you need it? 'Cause if you want it you gotta lay it all out on the line."

"I didn't want to play a rancher. I didn't want to have a cowboy hat on; I wanted to get away from that in the things I do. But I read the script and fell in love with it. As hard as I tried to say no, I couldn't."

"I coach my daughter's softball and basketball team. We go to all the school functions. We go out to eat at night and take the kids to the movies. We try to be as normal as we can."

"I always want to learn but I am sure on my dying day I will feel like I left something in the bucket."

"I ain't as good as I'm gonna get, but I'm better than I used to be."

"I live in a house with four women. Just shut up and say, Yes, ma'am."

"I love Bill Clinton. I think we should make him king. I'm talking the red robe, the turkey leg - everything."

"I love producing. I have been producing some acts and starting a label."

"I mean as long as I have been doing music I know I am only 30% of what I could be and want to be."

"I mean, I grew up riding. I can't ever remember not being able to ride or rope and all that stuff. It was part of my life growing up, so it was fun for me."

"I don't want to make that sound like I'm preaching from a mountain top when I say you have to give your family everything, because I know it's hard for people. I'm lucky to be in a position where you can establish those ground rules and make it that way."

"I feel like that I'm learning all the time. I'm learning from new artists, from established artists... every time I listen to '70s rock 'n' roll records, I'm learning. And I think that I'm just now starting to get a hold on what I do."

"I like the values in Flicka, and I wanted to do a movie my kids could see and be proud of."

"I just close my eyes no matter where I am, and just be still."

"I have three daughters, so I can't be as tough as I want to be. When you have kids - especially daughters - they know how to work you. They're a lot smarter than we are, that's for sure. But I'll be more tough on their boyfriends."

"Loving a man shouldn't have to be this rough"

"No, there will come a time where I'm not gonna do this anymore. I mean, there will come a time, definitely, where I'll turn into Elvis - I'm gonna be fat and fishin', I guarantee you."

"I think you have to be a little bit strict. You can't be friend and their parent in a lot of situations, especially in this day and age where it's so dangerous for kids. So there's a bit of sternness, I guess, in the way I raise my kids."

"I want to run for the Senate from Tennessee. Not now, but when I'm 50, when music dies down a little bit. I know lots of artists and actors have those delusions of grandeur, but ever since I was a kid, it's been of interest to me."

"I've been around the music business for a long time now, and I've had a lot of chances to do movies. But I didn't really want to do any until I found stuff that started to hit me in the right place."

"I'm actually not an exhibitionist at all. When you get onstage and you get under the lights playing music, I feel more hidden and more alone than anywhere else. You hide behind your music and let your emotions come out through the music."

"I mean, there's a little bit that gets out, but for the most part, the thing that makes us work, and makes our family successful, and our life successful, is when we walk home and we walk into our doors of our house, all that other stuff is left outside. It's not a factor."

"I'm coming up on 40 next year, and after making so many records and doing music for so long, I'm looking for a change and a different perspective. And every now and then, I think I have something I want to say."

"It's innate in me to be a Democrat - a true Southern populist kind of Democrat. There's not a lot of those anymore. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. That's just the way I feel."

"I need you like a needle needs a vein."

"One boy, one girl, two hearts beating wildly."

"One of these days I'm gonna love me and feel the joy of sweet release. One of these days I'll rise above me and at last I'll find some peace. And then I'm gonna smile a little and maybe even laugh a little. But one of these days... I'm gonna love me."

"The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people, health care, middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle class and the poor in our country."

"There's rises and falls and ups and downs in all music."

"Some say it's too country, some say it's too rock n' roll. But it's just good music if you can feel it in your soul."

"The last movie I did, I was very lucky: I got to work with probably the best actor of our era, Billy Bob Thornton. He's just incredible. I was like a sponge: I soaked up everything he had to say."

"We're parents first, and once you have kids, everybody knows that you have priority lists. Number one is your family and everything else just kind of finds its place."

"We're very blessed, just very fortunate to have the things we have."