Dolly Parton

After Momma gave birth to twelve of us kids, we put her up on a pedestal. It was mostly to keep Daddy away from her.

My songs are the door to every dream I've ever had and every success I've ever achieved.

A real important thing is that, though I rely on my husband for love, I rely on myself for strength.

The hardest exercise for most of us fat people is that one where we push our chairback from the dinner table.

If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.

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

Smile, it increases you face value.

I was very honored to get to be part of 'American Idol.'

Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams. All of them are different styles, but those are the songs that make the times. They're the songs that last through time.

I would honestly say that with all the awards and all the other things that I've done in my life, Dollywood is one of the greatest dreams that I've ever had come true - I am so proud of that I can't even begin to tell you, Dollywood is real special to me.

I wanted to be a singer, of course, but there was something about the songwriting, then and now, that is the most important thing. It's how I express myself, how I express how I see things. When I see people struggling with emotions and feelings and don't know how to put it down, I'm able to do that. It's really like a therapy, and it's like a buddy and a friend. It's a way out of a lot of things.

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.

When I do listen to music, I'm more prone to listen to the people I've always listened to: George Jones, Otis Redding, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.

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

In the early days, Porter Wagoner would not exactly scold me, but he's say, 'You're writing too many damn verses. You're makin' these songs too damn long.' And I'd say, 'Yeah, but I'm tellin' a story. I have a story to tell.' And he'd say, 'Well, you're not going to get it on the radio.' If I start writing a song, I'm writing it for a reason. People would say that I had to have two verses, and a chorus, and a bridge. I tried to learn that formula.

If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.

Smile, it enhances your face value.

I'm the kind of person who would rather rock in my rocking chair when I'm old and regret a few things that I did than to sit there and regret that I never tried.

I've never had a divorce, but I've seen so many of my friends, my sister, my family go through that stuff, so I try to write for the people that can't write about it. I take on their sorrow, so I'm able to kind of express it, or their joy.

I've always kinda been a little outcast myself, a little oddball, doin' my thing, my own way. And it's been hard for me to, to be accepted, certainly in the early years of my life.

There are certainly a lot of things that still need to change when it comes to women in the workforce.