Loretta Lynn quotes:

I loved being outside. We'd hold lightning bugs in our fingers and pretend they were diamond rings.

My biggest hero, Gregory Peck, was my birthday present on April 14, 1973. I just sat and stared at him.

The country is making a big mistake not teaching kids to cook and raise a garden and build fires.

Me and my partner, Conway Twitty, cleaned up at the 1972 Country Music Association Awards.

I won all the blue ribbons for canning at the state fair.

I'd love to travel to the Holy Land.

I don't go to church regular. But I pray for answers to my problems.

I'm proud of being part Cherokee, and I think it's time all us Indians felt the same way.

When I first came to Nashville, people hardly gave country music any respect. We lived in old cars and dirty hotels, and we ate when we could.

A woman's two cents worth is worth two cents in the music business.

I know there's some kind of history to mountain music-like it came from Ireland or England or Scotland and we kept up the tradition.

I'd love to work more with the American Indians, my people.

Mommy smoked but she didn't want us to. She saw smoke coming out of the barn one time, so we got whipped.

We still lend our old house out to relatives. They keep a guest book for my fans to sign.

I'm not a big fan of Women's Liberation, but maybe it will help women stand up for the respect they're due.

When all those city folks try to fix up my talking, all they do is mess me up.

I try to visit people in hospitals when I can, smiling and joking while I'm there. But when I leave, I just start crying.

How do you measure your value?

I didn't know how babies were made until I was pregnant with my fourth child.

My attitude toward men who mess around is simple: If you find 'em, kill 'em.

You get used to sadness, growing up in the mountains, I guess.

When I'd tell people I like country music they'd get this look on their faces. People were kind of ashamed of country.

I think Charley Pride has been one of the best things to happen to country music, to prove it belongs to everybody.

I was the first woman ever named Entertainer of the Year in country music.

Sometimes I think our problems are made worse by the kind of business we're in. Playing these road shows is a weird experience.

I refuse to be pushed around anymore.

I never rode in an automobile until I was 12.

I avoid going through places where there's too much poverty.

Back then, we didn't know we were poor, and people were more proud then.

Do the best you can with yourself and hope for the best.

If I had a chance to do things over again, I might not start singing. It was my husband Doolittle's idea. He pushed me out there, the booger. And I'm out there now, so I might as well make the best of it.

I'm always making Butcher Holler sound like the most backward part of the United States-and I think maybe it is.

Because Olivia Newton-John wasn't from Nashville, they didn't like her winning our awards. I've got no complaints.

We used to go around tipping outhouses over, or turning over corn shocks on Halloween. Anything to be mean.

Daddy was real gentle with kids. That's why I expected so much out of marriage, figuring that all men should be steady and pleasant.

Really, I don't know what I'd do with myself if I retire. Wash dishes?

Growing up in eastern Kentucky like I did, I'm used to having a few guns around to protect me.

I never knew any Jews until I got into show business. I've found them to be real smart and good workers.

I'm trying to lead a good Christian life, so there ain't too much spicy to tell about me.

I believe in horoscopes. I was born under the sign of the Ram, which means I'm headstrong, don't like people telling me what to do.

I've seen every highway in the United States, and they all look alike to me.

I get along with all the women singers, but especially Dolly Parton. We talk the same hillbilly language.

Once in a while I get inspired and finish my act with the hillbilly hoedown.

Doo never actually made moonshine, but he hauled about an ocean of it.

There's more women stars in Nashville all the time. They're proving they can do the job the same as a man.

You ain't supposed to get salmon when they're swimming upstream to spawn. But if you're hungry, you do.

Sometimes they work, and sometimes they just won't. Sometimes you get hung up on them. When that happens, you just throw it back, and maybe come back to it two or three weeks later.

You've got to continue to grow, or you're just like last night's cornbread - stale and dry.

Doolittle looked just like a little toy soldier the first time I ever saw him.

I've seen country music go uptown, like we say, and I'm proud I was there when it happened.

The night I announced I was getting married, Daddy paced for hours on the porch.

When something is bothering me, I write a song that tells my feelings.

I've been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.

Nobody's perfect. The only one that ever was, was crucified.

I wouldn't have dared ask God for all that He's given me. I couldn't have done it on my own. I thank God every day for what I have.

I've always been full of nervous energy, but I'm not really as happy as I seem.

There's always been a man telling me what to do.

I believe in education and wish I had a better one.

All music is based on country music. And that's why so many different kinds of people relate to it. There are more country music fans in New Jersey than there are down South.

Being on stage is the best part of my career. I just say whatever comes into my head. It's the only time I feel grown-up and in control of things.

I ain't got much education, but I got some sense.

I came out the back of the building and I was hollering, 'I've sung on the Grand Ole Opry! I've sung on the Grand Ole Opry!'

I don't know what it's like for a book writer or a doctor or a teacher as they work to get established in their jobs, but for a singer, you've got to continue to grow or else you're just like last night's cornbread...stale and dry.

I don't like to talk about things where you're going to gt one side or the other unhappy. My music has no politics.

I had more verses . Owen Bradley said, 'Loretta, there's already been one El Paso and we'll never have another one. Get in that room and start taking some of those verses off.' Yeah, I took six verses off.

I know what it's like to be pregnant and nervous and poor.

I love people and I love to sing, and that's what keeps me going.

I never knew where babies came from until it happened to me.

I want more out of life than I've gotten.

I wasn't for Vietnam. When I told that to the hippie newspaper, all my people got nervous.

If anyone asks how old I am, tell them it's none of their business!

If I found out some gal was trying to steal my guy, I'd want to give her a black eye! Instead, I wrote this song. At the time I was writing each song [on this album], you could figure out the frame of mind I was in by listening closely. With every song I've ever recorded, I'm in it. I wouldn't write about it if I wasn't in it.

In the long run, you make your own luck - good, bad, or indifferent.

It's important that you take care of yourself and blow off steam in the right way. Don't let some woman walk in and say, "hey, goodbye!" and take your man. Kill her if you can! I'm only kidding.

I've been married to the same man for all this time. The way we fight sometimes, you can tell.

I've seen things, and that's almost the same as doing them.

My life has run from misery to happiness.

My mother used to paper pictures from movie magazines on the wall of her bedroom. When I was born, she looked at those pictures to decide on a name for me. Claudette Colbert's picture was up there and so was Loretta Young's. She decided Loretta was the prettiest name, so I was named after her.

No matter what you do, it can't be perfect. I told Jack White, 'If I'd 'a sung that song more'n twice, it might of sounded better.' He said, 'Well, it might not of. You might have took the spark out of it.' I don't know if he has a point or not. We'll find out.

Some of my friends who know me best say they wouldn't trade places with me for $1 million because of the pace I lead.

Sometimes it's like you're a big pie settin' on the table, and everybody runs up and gets their piece of you. When it's over' the plate's empty.

There's never going to be another Patsy Cline. Without her, I don't think I would have lasted.

When I lost my husband [Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn], I just didn't want to work so hard anymore. I hate that I didn't quit things a lot more before he was gone. I stayed home for six years to take care of him but, at some point, I also felt I had to go back to work.

Who wants to be married to a grandfather?

Why leave the nut you got for one you don't know?

Write about the truth. If you write about the truth, somebody's living that. Not just somebody, there's a lot of people.

You don't see no city when you look at me cause country's all I am. I love runnin' barefoot through the old cornfields and I love that country ham. Well you say I'm made just to fit your plans but there's a barnyard shovel pick your hands. If your eyes are on me you're lookin' at country.

You either have to be first, best, or different.

You have to be different, great or first.

You have to be first, different, or great. If you're one of them, you may make it.

You have to be the first, best or different.

You're the reason our kids are ugly.

I think I reach people because I'm with them, not apart from them.

I was married when I wasn't quite 14 and had four babies by the time I was 18.

A lot of people say I'd miss show business if I quit. I'd miss some of it. Now it's the only life I know.