Tom T. Hall

“If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I'd figure her career was as dead as mine!”

“I had the notion that I wanted to write the great dirty American novel, so I went to Roanoke College on the GI Bill.”

“I never fixed a story. I didn't make judgments, I let the listener make judgments. When I got to the end of the story, if it had a moral, I let the listener find it.”

“I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.”

“Religion is a strange, wonderful thing. More crimes have been committed in the name of righteousness than any other notion.”

“People think because you're private, you have something you don't want them to know.”

“This generation should entertain this generation. It's only fair. When I was a kid, I mowed the lawn. Now, somebody else's kid can mow the lawn.”

“I was quite a reader before I became a writer.”

“I took up a sort of a hobby of just hanging around the local library. I'd pick out an author and I would read all their books.”

“I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.”

“It used to be that you'd have a song recorded by a major country artist and if it was a hit, you could buy a car. Now you can buy a dealership.”

“The best compliment I ever had is, one day I was in Nashville, some disc jockey said, Hey, that sounds like a Tom T. Hall song. Up until then there hadn't been any such thing.”

“I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.”

“My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.”

“The first time with artistic endeavors is, if it's working, it was your idea, and if it's not, it's somebody else's idea.”

“I never hid out. I was never big enough a star.”

“Faulkner was almost oriental. I never got into Faulkner.”

“I'm a very comfortable and happy-go-lucky old man. I never wanted to be great, because I'd just get worried.”

“The first guy who came up with the concept of religion was sitting out under a tree. I'm sure of that.”

“Whiskey's to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.”