Quotes

You don't waste your entire life waiting to go back to dust.

Being a strong woman is very important to me. But doing it all on my own is not.

Easter is very important to me, it's a second chance.

[when asked by Larry King if she had ever been asked to "sex it up" a little] I'm more of the down-home -- I guess, you know, the good-old girl. Being sexy is kind of funny to me. You know, I can get kind of spunky or I can get tough, you know, that kind of tough, sexy look. But sexy? No, I don't think so. Just what you see is what you get on me. And it's never been anything of a sexual nature.

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.

Be different, stand out, and work your butt off.

For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness.

Finding a good bus driver can be as important as finding a good musician.

Dolly paved such a great freeway for women. So did Loretta, Tammy and Barbara Mandrell. I've got to keep pavin' that freeway for the gals in country music. Maybe it gives them some ammunition, incentive, inspiration to continue on.

[on her recording and film Is There Life Out There? (1994)] Women will come up to me and say because of that song they went back to college and got their degree after their kids were grown. Music is very, very strong. It heals. It talks to you like nobody else can talk to you.

[on her early career] It took me six years. Thank God the record label kept me on. It wasn't a cram it down your throat, hurry up, throw it out, you'd better be number five or better or you're out. Thank goodness it wasn't that way when I was getting started, or I would never have gotten my toe in the door.

[on transcending gender politics] As a woman, you don't complain, you work twice twice as hard and you do your job. You try to outsmart them, you try to outwork them and get there first. You help out, you volunteer, you're at the front of the line. That's what I learned from working on the cattle range and it helped me in the music business.

To succeed in life you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.