Jimmy Dean

“Poverty was the greatest motivating factor in my life.”

“When I was a kid, I used to think, 'Man, if I could ever afford all the ice cream I want to eat, that's as rich as I ever want to be.'”

“You know you're getting old when you go to more funerals than you do weddings.”

“I think the kids in school that laughed at the clothes that we wore and the house that we lived in, and then my mother had to cut hair... I think that was a good motivator. Every time they laughed at me, they just built a fire, and there was only one way to put it out - to try and show 'em I was as good as they were.”

“The other day, I said I should write a song, 'When Does the New Wear Off?' I think it would be a helluva title.”

“A lot of things I am, and a lot of things I am not. But I think I'm about as good an American as there is. I love this country. It's been very, very good to me. And it will be good to anybody if they are willing to give of themselves.”

“My favorite song? 'Amazing Grace.' Anybody singing it. But the best it'll ever be done is by the Scottish National Pipe band and their National Orchestra. It'll bring tears to your eyes.”

“Sausage is a great deal like life. You get out of it about what you put into it.”

“I used to help my granddaddy make sausage. He would mix it up in a cleaned-out washtub with his hands, no gloves. Man, if we did anything like that today, they would jack the jail up and throw us under it.”

“God is bigger than people think.”

“I've seen so many people in this business that made a fortune. They get old and broke and can't make any money. I tell you something... no one's going to play a benefit for Jimmy Dean.”

“Do what you say you're going to do. And try to do it a little better than you said you would.”

“Being a nice guy is detrimental to actors. When I first came to Hollywood, everyone was nice to me. Everyone thought I was a nice guy.”

“I was a hard-workin' little boy. Oh, I worked. Pullin' cotton, shockin' grain, cuttin' wheat, loadin' wheat, choppin' cotton, cleanin' chicken houses, milkin' cows, plowin'.”

“Love is an ice cream sundae, with all the marvelous coverings. Sex is the cherry on top.”

“Nobody, man or woman, has ever wrecked a good marriage.”

“You gotta try your luck at least once a day, because you could be going around lucky all day and not even know it.”

“Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.”

“I loved music since the Seth Ward Baptist Church outside of Plainview.”

“I don't want anything seventy-thirty. Fifty-fifty's always good enough for me.”