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.

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

The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.

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 am a fan of history.

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

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

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

Young kids are doing the same thing I did, but they're doing it differently. They don't do brain surgery the way they used to do it either.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

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

When you retire, it's a place in life, a part of the journey. You just don't quit work; you develop an attitude where you can do what you please.

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

I was quite a reader before I became a writer.

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.

My best album is called In Search Of A Song. That was my best shot right there. My finest hour, as they say. I could listen to the whole thing all the way through. There's nothing really crammed into it.

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

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.

I have had hundreds of people work for me over the years, and I don't think I ever fired anybody.

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

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

The first time with artistic endeavors is if its working it was your idea and if its not its somebody elses idea.

The enticing allure of Nashville is that there is always something new coming down the pike. Put this record on and you’ll hear footsteps.

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

There were a lot of adventure books for boys, historical novels by Kenneth Roberts, and whatever mystery novels the alarmed librarian imagined might not corrupt an eager but innocent youth.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.

It is the interest one takes in books that makes a library. And if a library have interest it is; if not, it isn't.

I enjoy about 1 out of 100 movies, it's about the same proportion to books published that I care to read.

I was drawn to boxing because I got beat up as a kid. I was the kid with the piano books in a New York neighbourhood.

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

The proper study of mankind is books.

I have written about 10 books, all just practical encouragement for moms.

Whites were the winners, blacks were the losers, we wrote the history books, and they didn't feature.

Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.

You could say, in a vulgar Freudian way, that I am the unhappy child who escapes into books. Even as a child, I was most happy being alone. This has not changed.

Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist.

As I have studied the Bible and the Book of Mormon, I have come to know through the power of the Spirit of God, that these books contain the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are some friends you don't meet for twenty years and when you meet them again it's as if no twenty years has happened - you're lucky when that happens. I feel the same about books.

Then I found books that were written much later, as late as 15 years ago. It was very superficial material, but enough to tell me that the genesis of this story was worth exploring.

To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.

Well, it was actually - I brought the idea of doing a documentary to HBO back in 2000, when there were some press reports sort of were bandied about that there were going to TV movies based on some of the books that were out.

In my subconscious, my books were part of a single emotional journey.