A biography for Carlene Carterhasn’t been written yet.
“I've matured as a writer and human being. I've got some wisdom under my belt.”
“I'd had three husbands by 23. The second was a songwriter who couldn't handle the fact the little lady was doing better than him.”
“Basically, I grew up watching Carter girls on stage, watching my grandmother, my mom and my aunts perform. They used to say, 'Okay, Carter girls, you're on!'”
“One good thing is I was instilled with really good values. My mom treats everyone the same.”
“I don't know how I got out of some of the scrapes I was in. But I know that there's some sort of plan.”
“I think, looking back, there was a lot of fear of success in me. When you are successful, you have to keep it up... it requires you to be responsible, and I had been pretty irresponsible.”
“If someone gets married at 15, they're either dumb or pregnant. I was both.”
“I challenged myself to carry on the style of guitar that my grandmother did: the Carter scratch.”
“I've always been one of those people - once I start something, I have to get it all out, because it gets me.”
“It's all for a reason and all happened the way it was supposed to happen.”
“I grew up on the side of the stage. I never had a fear of an audience. I never felt like they were separated from us. We were all in the living room, and it happens to be a big living room. I continue to operate on that assumption.”
“I always wanted to be the rockin'est country chick in the universe.”
“Whenever I get to a point I'm so tired that I forgot the verse of a song, I know I'm burnt out.”
“I have great stories. I am going to write a book.”
“I was always in a big hurry to do everything. Before I was 20, I was married twice and had two kids. But I don't regret any of it. I learned a lot about myself. I had a lot to say for someone my age, real early on.”
“Whenever I've not known what to do, I've always gone back to the Carter Family because there was nothing like singing with my aunts and my mom to my grandma.”
“There are no rules when it comes to songwriting, so I'd turn Carter family songs from the 1930s into pop songs.”
“A lot of people said I was a rebel. I wasn't.”
“Working with Mellencamp, I made new fans, people that may have never heard of me. They may have heard I was related to the Carter Family or Johnny Cash somehow, but what they got was pure Carlene.”