Tom T. Hall

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

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

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.

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.

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

I'm a very comfortable and happy-go-lucky old man. I never wanted to be great, because I'd just get worried.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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