Kris Kristofferson

“I remember I had an actor friend - a close friend from college - Anthony Zerbe. He sent me a telegram before I started my first movie, 'Cisco Pike.' It said, 'Have a good time. Ignore the camera.' That was the extent of my training.”

“I got scars on my face that tell some kind of story. I'm looking in the mirror, and I got one scar that's really two scars - half from a baseball bat and half from playing football in college. I'll tell you, though, after a while, your face gets so wrinkled up you can hardly see them.”

“You don't paddle against the current, you paddle with it. And if you get good at it, you throw away the oars.”

“I grew up in a time when people believed in duty, honor and country. My grandfathers were both officers. My father was a General in the Air Force. My brother and I were both in the Army. I've always felt a kinship with soldiers; I think it's possible to support the warrior and be against the war.”

“The one thing I regret is missing the time with my older children when they were young.”

“I feel like an old boxer. The brain's gone, but I can still move around.”

“I remember having a lot of Josh White albums. Johnny Cash. Elvis. I loved the Coasters.”

“I grew up listening to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, so arriving in Nashville in the '60s was really exciting for me.”

“I don't think I'm that good a singer. I can't think of a song that I've written that I don't like the way somebody else sings it better.”

“Look at me! I can go from 'Donny and Marie' to Sam Peckinpah to Radio City Music Hall in one week.”

“Looking back, I'm surprised I had the nerve to do it, but I'm glad I did. Performing the songs and performing in film was just a part of my personality, just like football and boxing at one point in my life. I was able to lose myself in both of them, and that was a good feeling.”

“I think I'm a much better father as an older man than I was with my first kids. Occasionally, I have to yell at the little guys, but they don't take me seriously. 'Listen to the old guy,' they say. 'Isn't he great? He's mad.'”

“Johnny Cash's legacy, I think if it was one word, it would be 'integrity.' He was the original wild man and grew from that guy that was doing all the crazy things that you read that rock n' rollers do to being someone who was like the father of our country, you know. He was a guest at the White House. He was Billy Graham's friend.”

“Those 'Idol' shows are kind of scary to me. They wanted me to be on one of those panels one time, and I said it's the last thing in the world I'd ever want to do. I would hate to have to discourage somebody.”

“There's a time where people were out holding posters in protest outside shows I was doing, and thankfully, we've moved past that. And a lot of country stations wouldn't play me. They were more conservative than I was.”

“I was working the Gulf of Mexico on oil rigs, flying helicopters. I'd lost my family to my years of failing as a songwriter. All I had were bills, child support, and grief. And I was about to get fired for not letting 24 hours go between the throttle and the bottle. It looked like I'd trashed my act. But there was something liberating about it.”

“I had fought for my independence and fought for my freedom to do as I chose.”

“Every album I've made is about what I'm experiencing at the time.”

“What really makes me happy now is my home. I know that I have that to lose. But I don't see losing it. And I don't care if I never do another movie. And I don't care if I never get back on the road. I like to think that I'm gonna do that. But if I don't, I can live with that.”

“To me, if you love it enough to devote your life to it, then you're doing the right thing.”