Kris Kristofferson Quotations

I have no regrets. I feel very grateful for the life that I had - you know, family I live with; and I've been doing work that I love, ever since I came to Nashville.

The closest I've come to knowing myself is in losing myself. That's why I loved football before I loved music. I could lose myself in it.

Never give up, which is the lesson I learned from boxing. As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one doesn't cancel out the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.

You don't paddle against the current, you paddle with it. And if you get good at it, you throw away the oars.

I grew up in a time when people believed in duty, honor and country. My grandfathers were both officers. My father was a General in the Air Force. My brother and I were both in the Army. Ive always felt a kinship with soldiers; I think its possible to support the warrior and be against the war.

There are points in your life, especially if you have creative ambitions, where selfishness is necessary.

Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. 'Cause that's all that matters in the end.

I feel so lucky to have lived the life that I did and to be surrounded by the people I love. I've got eight kids, and they're always laughing all the time. It's like music to my ears. I think that my frame of mind these days is probably happier than I've ever been, which is kind of odd, coming close to the finish line.

If you can't get out of something, get into it.

I never thought of acting as a creative process. Christ, I used to go to the movies and see Brando talking like he was trying to sell shoes, and he was great. I thought anybody could do it. Then I tried it, and I got so uptight, I'm limited as to what I can do on film.

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

If God made anything better than women, I think he kept it for himself.

I got scars on my face that tell some kind of story. I'm looking in the mirror, and I got one scar that's really two scars - half from a baseball bat and half from playing football in college. I'll tell you, though, after a while, your face gets so wrinkled up you can hardly see them.

If God made anything better than women, he kept it for himself.

I had a list of rules I made up one time. It says: Tell the truth, sing with passion, work with laughter, and love with heart. Those are good to start with, anyway.

I've had a life of all kinds of experiences - most of them good. And I've got eight kids and a wife that puts up with everything I do and keeps me out of trouble.

I've been writing songs since I was a little boy. You know, I think I wrote my first song when I was 11.

Freedom is just another word: It seems to get truer the older I get.

I always had to wait until something hit me, and I could write it. But when I would cut an album, to me it represented the time that I spent since the last one. Just the way I was looking at the world.

Johnny Cash has always been larger than life.

When I was thirty, and a long time after that, I felt like I had to leave home to do what I had to do. Now, it's just the opposite.

I've never forgotten a single record I cut or a song I wrote.

The one thing I regret is missing the time with my older children when they were young.

I boxed in Golden Gloves at Oxford and still know how to throw a straight left jab.

I think I'm a much better father as an older man than I was with my first kids. Occasionally, I have to yell at the little guys, but they don't take me seriously. 'Listen to the old guy,' they say. 'Isn't he great? He's mad.'

I never was one to go into an office and write. For one thing, I had a job. I was cleaning the ashtrays and setting up the studios at Columbia for a couple of years and working every other week down in the Gulf of Mexico flying helicopters. I didn't really get to just write songs for about five years.

Working with Dakota's not exactly like working with a kid. She's a remarkable actor. ... Bette Davis was probably like that when she was a little girl, and I think she'll amaze us for years.

I don't have the voice of a Ray Charles or a George Jones or any of those artists I loved.

I have a feeling it's kind of like working with a horse that's too big for you to control yourself, too strong,

I think he was awed by the realization of a dream, ... I was so awe-struck, myself.

That's the kind of song that usually gets me in trouble in the show.

When you're headed for the border, you're bound to cross the line.

Bette Davis. I imagine that's what she was like when she was young. I think that this girl's going to amaze us for a long time.

The world situation being what it is, I have a lot to say, ... And I figure as long as I've got something to talk about, I'll probably keep talking.

Acting is still fun. Talking about it is not.

It started about a year or so ago when I was doing a film in Scotland,

Every one of us is sort of a figment of our own imaginations.

It's hard to believe that it's been a year. It's still painful that he's gone. I think about him a lot.

The world is a better place because of you. You thrilled us as a fighter and you inspired us even more as a force for peace and reconciliation, understanding and respect. No one was ever more beautiful or brash or bright or powerful or fast in the ring. It was breathtaking.

I'm sure it gave him satisfaction to be out there knocking out a room full of kids,

I know that some critics will say it's predictable, and it's a cliche, and it's sappy, but listen - it works. I've been to two screenings where people have been crying and spontaneously applauding. That says something.

I'm not worried about Dakota at all, ... She has a real family, a real loving family. That probably has a lot to do with who she is now. That's probably why she's so grounded.

I certainly didn't think our last tour was gonna be the last,

I don't write as much as I did back when I was writing songs every day, ... But when current events and world situations get in your brain, that's the way I sort it out.

Johnny Cash's face belongs on Mount Rushmore...I don't write as much as I did back when I was writing songs every day. I've come to know when I've got a good one, although sometimes it takes the world awhile to catch up with me...If you're in it because you love it and you have to do it, that's the right reason. If you're in it because you want to get rich or famous, don't do it.

And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert

The heart is what matters most of all

I'll probably be writing as long as I'm breathing.

... Johnny Cashs' face belongs on Mount Rushmore ...

Well I work up Sunday morning, With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt, And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, So I had one more for dessert. Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes, And found my cleanest dirty shirt. An' I shaved my face and combed my hair, An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

Just remember that William Blake wasn't even published in his lifetime. Ya gotta keep creating.

Never's just the echo of forever, lonesome as a love that might have been. Let me go on lovin' and believin' 'til it's over. Please don't tell me how the story ends.

I'd lost my family to my years of failing as a songwriter. All I had were bills, child support, and grief. And I was about to get fired. It looked like I'd trashed my act. But there was something liberating about it. By not having to live up to people's expectations, I was somehow free.

Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free.

His soul was bigger than a body's ought to be.

I'll only live 'til I die

There were decades I didn't play sober. I thought, Who would want to? But at some point, I decided that if it was important enough to me to keep doing it as art, I should do it with all my tools.

If you're in it because you love it and you have to do it, that's the right reason. If you're in it because you want to get rich or famous, don't do it. People often say that my first years in Nashville, when I wasn't getting anything cut, were tough. Hell, those were great years.

The wolf pack will die when scattered by man, lonesome coyote survives.

As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one doesn't cancel out the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.

I'd rather be sorry for something I had done than for something I didn't do.

Jesus was a Capricorn, he ate organic foods, he believed in love and peace, and never wore no shoes.

When they prove something wrong you believed in so long, you go crazy.

The closest Ive come to knowing myself is in losing myself. Thats why I loved football before I loved music. I could lose myself in it.

Bombing people for economic reasons is as horrible as killing a pregnant woman.

Bad love is better than no love at all, at least you know you're alive.

I'd trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday.

If God's got a favorite songwriter, I think it's John Prine.

Johnny Cash was the champion of the voiceless, the underdogs and the downtrodden. He was also something of a holy terror, like Abraham Lincoln with a wild side. He represented the best of America.

Bobby McGee' was the song that made the difference for me. Every time I sing it, I still think of Janis.

You're the only one that you are screwin', when you put down what you don't understand.

The world he saw was sadder than the one he hoped to find. But it wasn't near as lonesome as the one he left behind.

I don't think I've gotten any smarter, but your reflexes slow down before you do something stupid when you're older.

Gordon Lightfoot has created some of the most beautiful and lasting music of our time. He is Bob Dylan's favorite singer/songwriter - high praise from the best of us, applauded by the rest of us.

I've been a radical for a long time. I guess it's too bad. I'd be more marketable as a right-wing redneck.

Peter Cooper looks at the world with an artist's eye and a human heart and soul. His songs are the work of an original, creative imagination, alive with humor and heartbreak and irony and intelligence, with truth and beauty in the details. Deep stuff. And they get better every time you listen to them.

The only reality is in the moment. What you are doing counts.

I want you to know I'm an Army brat; I was a captain in the Army and my brother was a jet pilot in the Navy. So I support our troops; I identify with them. But I sure as hell don't identify with the bastards who sent them over there.

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

The number one rule of the road is never go to bed with anyone crazier than yourself. You will break this rule and you will be sorry.

Roy Orbison was one of the genuinely nicest persons I've ever known. With one of the most beautiful voices in the history of recorded music he could easily have had an opera star's ego, but he was one of the humblest, kindest, sweetest human beings to grace this planet. This in spite of the enormous tragedies in his life. A brave, beautiful blessing of a man.