Quotes by Dolly Parton
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I'm a singer, a writer and an actress -- when I find something that I feel good enough about doing.

I don't have time to stand around and listen to an 11-minute song.

I am a tender-hearted person, and I feel everything to the ninth degree.

I had to get rich so I could sing like I was poor again.

When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of being a star. I didn't really know what all that meant. I didn't know.

They say somebody's 'street smart.' I feel like, if I got intelligence, it's just a country smart.

Of course, 'I Will Always Love You' is the biggest song so far in my career. I'm famous for several, but that one has been recorded by more people and made me more money, I think, than all of them. But that song did come from a true and deep place in my heart.

'9 to 5,' that little song, that little story, just won't ever end. Just like 'I Will Always Love You,' it just keeps comin' back, popping up its head in one way or another.

No one could have been nicer, classier nor better looking than Dick Clark. I've had a crush on him since I was a teenager.

I'm comfortable in my own skin, no matter how far it's stretched. Ha ha.

I'm very secure about my talents and about who I am.

I think people take me as seriously as I want them to. They take me as seriously as I take myself -- let's put it that way.

I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.

People are always asking me in interviews, 'What do you think of foreign affairs?' I just say, 'I've had a few.'

That little Miley Cyrus... she's like a little Elvis. The kids love her because she's Hannah Montana, but what people don't realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter. She writes songs like she's 40 years old!

I never thought, in my lifetime, that you'd be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.

I always ask God to work through me and let me be a light of some kind and help in this world, so I always pray for that, and I always want to do good.

I didn't know any gay people in my childhood.

I can write a song in about an hour if it's a simple country song.

I always think of myself as a working girl.

I do believe that any successful business starts from the top and works its way down.

I was approached about having my own network many, many years ago. There were some people who wanted to start up a network, and I didn't want to get that involved in the business aspect of it.

If I'd married someone in show business, there'd be too much competition.

I'm not trying to be fashionable. Never was!

I've been very fortunate.

My songs are like my children -- I expect them to support me when I'm old.

I'm just a friendly person; that runs in my family.

I always loved that old song 'Banks of the Ohio' -- it was always such a man's song, so I've always wanted to record it.

I'm pretty sure in my older years, I'll be doing old-time flavored folk-mountain music.

I'm not intimidated by how people perceive me.

I used to always sit in church looking out the windows at the boys, wondering if I could make an excuse to go out and, you know, go to the bathroom because all the outdoor toilets. But anyhow, I was only going out to see the boys.

I ain't never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

I don't think you ever really know what all you're doing, so you have to act on faith.

I come from a family of 12, so I kind of got a little lost as a child.

I did not, thank the Lord, have to have a hysterectomy.

I don't kiss nobody's butt.

I think so many people live their whole life in fear and doubt and shame.

All my momma's people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.

You don't see too many atheists on the deathbed. They all start cramming then.

I've been to those places where it's 'poor, pitiful me.'

I have had some cosmetic surgery, especially after I lost weight and stuff, and I've had my breasts lifted -- but not injected. That would scare me to death, anyway.

There are some loony people in this world!

I just don't have time to get old!

I think there is a little magic in the fact that I'm so totally real but look so artificial at the same time.

I've never been a feminist.

People get a kick out of my stupidity.

I've been around longer than most of my fans have been alive.

I have a big gay and lesbian following and they've been very loyal and kind to me.

I've enjoyed all the parts of my career.

Above everything else I've done, I've always said I've had more guts than I've got talent.

I know it's corny -- but I love 'Jingle Bells!'

I think your values are always influenced by your family and your community.

Tell me I have to be somewhere, and I'll be there 20 minutes early and stay there longer than anybody else. You hold up a lot of people if you're not on time.

There's nothing like white trash at the White House.

Believe it or not, I was just given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee.

I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde.

People like bluegrass. It's had a following amongst a lot of hip and young people. A lot of college kids like bluegrass.

Sometimes if you jump into something too quickly, you can screw up something that might have been good two years down the road.

I've always been fascinated by everything with wings.

Someone once asked me, 'How long does it take to do your hair.' I said, 'I don't know, I'm never there.'

Depression runs in my family on both sides, and I have to be wary.

I just don't feel like I have to explain myself.

I was always a junk food person, still am.

I think I became more productive through not having children. I never really had the desire to have them. My husband didn't want them either, so it worked out well.

I'm not a politician. And I don't want to be.

I modelled my looks on the town tramp.

I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else.

I do write a lot of children's songs, and I'm going to do a children's television show, which also means I'll be doing a lot of albums. So I do hope my future will hold a lot of things for children.

A gypsy told me I was going to do great things. I was going to make all kinds of money.

Stop this attitude that older people ain't any good anymore! We're as good as we ever were -- if we ever were any good.

If you like good ol' fashion Southern soul food then, yes, I am a good cook! My specialty is chicken dumplings and poke salad.

It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.

If you talk bad about country music, it's like saying bad things about my momma. Them's fightin' words.

I'm gonna be making records anyway, even if I had to sell 'em out of the trunk of my car. I'm that kind of musician and singer.

The secret to a long marriage is to stay gone.

I look just like the girls next door... if you happen to live next door to an amusement park.

Until I was a teenager, I used red pokeberries for lipstick and a burnt matchstick for eyeliner. I used honeysuckle for perfume.

I do remember how it was to be poor. I do remember that in my early years, we had to grow and raise all of our food, even our animals. And I remember in my early life, we didn't even have electricity. So it was very, very hard times then.

When I started the Imagination Library in my hometown, I never dreamed that one day we would be helping Scottish kids.

It's a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I'd be a drag queen.

When I was with Andy Warhol, I thought, 'God, his wig looks cheaper than mine!'

I think country music is popular -- has been popular and will always be popular because I think a lot of real people singing about a lot of real stuff about real people. And it's simple enough for people to understand it. And we kind of roll with the punches.

If I can get my dress on, my weight is under control.

God knows when the end of time will come, not some fanatic... The world will end someday, but the end of the world and the end of time are two different things.

You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can't put a dollar sign on.

I know who I am, I know what I can and can't do. I know what I will and won't do. I know what I'm capable of and I don't agree to do things that I don't think I can pull off.

I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it's just depressing to me. The poor little kids.

My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

Every seven years, I sit down and make a whole new plan.

Plastic surgeons are always making mountains out of molehills.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don't they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It's obvious I've got big ones and if people want to assume they're not mine, then let them.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn't get some of that stuff out.

I was born with a happy heart, and I try to keep a good attitude. It's not true that I'm happy all the time because nobody is, and we all go through our things.

I'm an energy vampire. I just suck off everybody's energy. But I give it back.