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

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

No matter what, I always make it home for Christmas. I love to go to my Tennessee Mountain Home and invite all of my nieces and nephews and their spouses and kids and do what we all like to do – eat, laugh, trade presents and just enjoy each other… and sometimes I even dress up like Santa Claus!

I have a tendency to be awfully big-hearted and it’s very hard for me to say no, even when I need to.

God tells us not to judge one another, no matter what anyone‘s sexual preferences are or if they’re black, brown or purple.

Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

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

I have suffered most of the things I write about – or my friends have.

Every day I pray about all I do.

I’m working on my life story. I’m not decided if it’s going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.

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

I listen to my old records and I think, ‘How did I ever get on the radio?’

Some guys look better as they get older.

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

Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.

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

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.

My lips, I’ve used collagen. I line my lips with collagen.

I’ve done everything every fat person ever has. I’ve tried every diet.

Thanks to Botox and fillers, as well as the work that I’ve already had, my face pretty much maintains itself.

A lot of people think I’m a comedian.

Money ain’t everything.

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.

I don’t make people bend over backwards, and I don’t like that in people. I am definitely no diva.

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

I’ve used my femininity and my sexuality as a weapon and a tool… but that’s just natural.

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

I want to go and go, and then drop dead in the middle of something I’m loving to do. And if that doesn’t happen, if I wind up sitting in a wheelchair, at least I’ll have my high heels on.

You have to work hard, in order to get anything done.

People say I look so happy – and I say, ‘That’s the Botox.’

I’m a showgirl, as you can tell. I’m ever ready.

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

God and I have a great relationship, but we both see other people.

I really learned to sing in church, I think, really with emotion.

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

I can’t do nothing just a little.

I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.

I think everyone should be with who they love.

I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.

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

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

I’ve copyrighted 3,000 songs.

Don’t judge me by the cover, ’cause I’m a real good book.

I still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.

I feel that sin and evil are the negative part of you, and I think it’s like a battery: you’ve got to have the negative and the positive in order to be a complete person.

I don’t kiss nobody‘s butt.

Most country songs, certainly all the stuff I’ve written, are stories driven by characters.

I’m just a simple country girl.

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.

When I got somethin’ to say, I’ll say it.

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

People get a kick out of my stupidity.

Energy begets energy.

People just overshoot trying to find God. They’re going outside and trying everything. They don’t realize that it’s right inside themselves.

No, I can’t do rap music!

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.

We’re all just a bunch of sinners, but we do the best we can.

Funny thing is that the poorer people are, the more generous they seem to be.

I thank God for my failures. Maybe not at the time but after some reflection. I never feel like a failure just because something I tried has failed.

If people work for me over the years, I expect them to be paid what they’re owed, but I don’t expect them to be paid more than they earn.

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.

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.

It took me years to eat a lot of shellfish. I was probably 20 years old before I had even seen a shrimp cocktail. I like oysters, but fried.

A lot of people have said I’d have probably done better in my career if I hadn’t looked so cheap and gaudy. But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn’t be blamed because you want to look pretty.

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

I am not gay, but if I were, I would be the first one running out of the closet.

Find out who you are and do it on purpose.

My husband calls me ‘catfish.’ He says I’m all mouth and no brains.

I’ve always been fascinated by everything with wings.

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

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

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

‘9 to 5 the Musical’ is perfect for anyone that’s ever wanted to string up their boss, which is almost all of us.

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.

A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.

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

I think I’ve got my business notions and my sense for that sort of thing from my dad. My dad never had a chance to go to school. He couldn’t read and write. But he was so smart. He was just one of those people that could just make the most of anything and everything that he had to work with.

It’s always great to perform at home in the good ol’ U.S.A.

I’m easy to look like, so there are lots and lots of Dolly look-alikes.

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

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

I’ve tried different things through the years to get some play on mainstream. I’ll try to tailor-make it.

People don’t realize that we, we meaning people in show business, have the same problems as everyone else. Money doesn’t change that. Fame doesn’t change that. Sometimes that brings on more problems. You know, it’s just a different kind of problems.

I don’t like to give advice. I like to give people information because everyone’s life is different, and everyone’s journey is different.

I’ve enjoyed all the parts of my career.

I’m always amazed by the people who work on stage who sing night after night, day after day, week in week out.

I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.

You don’t need to buy expensive cosmetics; almost anything will do if you know how to apply it.

If I hadn’t been a woman, I’d be a drag queen for sure. I like all that flair and I’d be dressing up in them high heels and putting on the big hair. I’d be like Ru Paul.

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.

I was always a junk food person, still am.

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.

I know some of the best Dolly Parton jokes. I made ’em up myself.

Being a star just means that you just find your own special place, and that you shine where you are. To me, that’s what being a star means.

I’ve… been accused of being involved with every man I’m ever seen with or worked with. Maybe I have, maybe I ain’t. I never tell if I have.

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

I was the first woman to burn my bra – it took the fire department four days to put it out.

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 walk tall; I got a tall attitude.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

My favorite movies of all times is ‘Doctor Zhivago,’ and I love ‘Gone With the Wind.’ I’d love to play some Southern belle or something where I owned a plantation.

Children have always responded to me because I have that cartoon-character look.

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

I try to see the good in everybody, and I don’t care who people are as long as they’re themselves, whatever that is.

My biggest extravagances are also investments. I have several houses in California, a house in Nashville, an office complex, and I bought the old home place in Tennessee. They are different places for me to write, but I can turn right around and sell them.

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

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.

The secret to a long marriage is to stay gone.

I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.

I always think of myself as a working girl.

I’m a singer, a writer and an actress – when I find something that I feel good enough about doing.

I don’t have anything to say about other people’s art and their work.

I wear make-up, and it gets a little bit thicker every year.

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.

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

‘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.

I don’t like to get involved in things that I am not familiar with. I’m kind of a hands-on type of person.

I can be accused of trying to be commercial sometimes.

I’ve never had that much trouble with the paparazzi, but I don’t run the same circles that a lot of these people that do get hounded by the paparazzi.

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

Being brought up very religious, I have a fear of people that look to idol gods.

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 a lot of rednecks in the country where I grew up.

I love being busy.

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

Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston, I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, ‘Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.’

Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.

If you’re feeling low, don’t despair. The sun has a sinking spell every night, but it comes back up every morning.

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.

I’m very short, so I just have to watch my weight because I have a big appetite.

I always wanted to be loved.

I’ve always loved the fans in Scotland and have a little Scottish blood of my own.

Sevier County is a great area.

I don’t have maids or servants, and my husband and I love waking up early and going to the 24-hour supermarket when there is nobody else there.

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

People are looking for something a little more stable; people are feeling like they need to get closer to God.

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.

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

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

When I wake up, I expect things to be good. If they’re not, then I try to set about trying to make them as good as I can ’cause I know I’m gonna have to live that day anyway. So why not try to make the most of it if you can? Some days, they pan out a little better than others, but you still gotta always just try.

I love Indian, Italian and Mexican food. And if it’s a romantic type of thing, I like a good French restaurant.

I have tennis shoes with little rhinestones that I slip on if I exercise. But I always wear heels, even around the house. I’m such a short little thing, I can’t reach my kitchen cabinets.

A positive attitude and a sense of humor go together like biscuits and gravy.

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

I’ve never been a feminist.

My nails are my rhythm section when I’m writing a song all alone. Some day, I may cut an album, just me and my nails.

Nobody can ever make enough money for as many poor relatives as I’ve got. Somebody’s got a sick kid, or somebody needs an operation, somebody ain’t got this, somebody ain’t got that. Or to give the kids all a car when they graduate.

Actually, I hear a lot of rock music. My husband is a big rock fan.

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

I modelled my looks on the town tramp.

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.

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

My philosophy is simple: It’s a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.

I am confident that partnering my Dollywood Company with a great company like Gaylord will create something truly special.

I love story songs because I’ve always loved books.

I don’t think I’m supposed to boss other people around just because I’m a so-called celebrity or star. I hate that when people act that way. No one deserves it. I’ve seen it happen. I don’t call those people out – they know who they are. Some enjoy that reputation.

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

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 think every entertainer‘s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

My husband says I look like a Q-tip.

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.

My best country record only sold 200,000 copies.

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.

I think that I know the value of a dollar.

I’ll never graduate from collagen.

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

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

Adjusting to the passage of time, I think, is a key to success and to life: just being able to roll with the punches.

Its hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.

When I sit back in my rocking chair someday, I want to be able to say I’ve done it all.

When I’m home, I spend Sunday with my husband. If we’re not cooking, we travel around in our camper, stop at fast-food restaurants, and picnic. We love that stuff that will harden your arteries in a hurry.

I wanted to write a book that talked about the emotions of children, which is the rainbow. We all have moods. We talk about being blue when we’re sad, and being yellow when we’re cowards, and when we’re mad, we’re red.

You can’t really make people be any different than what they are.

I think that I’m perfect.

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.

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

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.

A lot of people don’t realise I came out of the Smoky Mountains with a load of songs.

You’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap!

I’d love to do a duet, always wanted to work with Madonna, but she never asked.

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

Sometimes my mouth is a little too big and a little too open and sounds too much like a sailor.

I’ll be like Bob Hope, touring when I’m 100.

After momma gave birth to 12 of us kids, we put her up on a pedestal. It was mostly to keep Daddy away from her.

You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.

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

I’m old enough and cranky enough now that if someone tried to tell me what to do, I’d tell them where to put it.

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

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

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 think 9/11 affected everybody in one way or another.

I grew up around lots of men – my father, my brothers, my uncles – so I wasn’t intimidated by them.

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.

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.

Dollywood is a family park, and all families are welcome. We do have a policy about profanity or controversial messages on clothing or signs. It is to protect the individual wearing or carrying them, as well as to keep down fights or problems by those opposed to it at the park.