Willie Nelson Quotations

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times.

I got along without you before I met you and I'll get along without you a long time after you're gone.

I started out really young, when I was four, five, six, writing poems, before I could play an instrument. I was writing about things when I was eight or 10 years old that I hadn't lived long enough to experience. That's why I also believe in reincarnation, that we were put here with ideas to pass around.

Freedom is control in your own life. I have more control now than in the past, and I'm learning the value of saying no. That's very important.

I grew up across the street from, you know, the Villarias, which was a great Mexican family there. In fact, there was three houses right across the street from me. So, day and night, I listened to Mexican music, and I'm sure, you know, my guitar playing, singing, writing, whatever, has a lot of Mexican flavor there, but it comes natural.

You know why divorces are so expensive? They're worth it.

Since I was a kid, music was what I wanted to do. I thought I could make it by my own talents. That's what I wanted to prove.

I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?

I believe that all roads lead to the same place - and that is wherever all roads lead to.

My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down - but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let's all have another round.

Anybody can be unhappy. We can all be hurt. You don't have to be poor to need something or somebody. Rednecks, hippies, misfits - we're all the same. Gay or straight? So what? It doesn't matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people, regardless.

Cruelty is all out of ignorance. If you knew what was in store for you, you wouldn't hurt anybody, because whatever you do comes back much more forceful than you send it out.

It doesn't hurt to feel sad from time to time.

We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.

Don't try to change anybody. And they should let you be yourself, 'You loved me when you met me, so let's keep going!'

I used to work in the cotton fields a lot when I was young. There were a lot of African Americans working out there. A lot of Mexicans - the blacks and the whites and the Mexicans, all out there singing, and it was like an opera in the cotton fields, and I can still hear it in the music that I write and play today.

I'm from Texas, and one of the reasons I like Texas is because there's no one in control.

I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.

You want to be a good parent and you want to be a friend, and it's hard to be both. You have to balance it as well as you can.

I text and email my friends and family a lot, but that's about the extent of my high-tech-etude.

We've already been reincarnated about a million times, maybe. It doesn't make sense any other way.

There's a great enthusiasm for good country music all over the world.

As long as there's a few farmers out there, we'll keep fighting for them.

I am not a pig farmer. The pigs had a great time, but I didn't make any money.

If you got the money honey I got the time and when you run out of money honey I run out of time.

A lot of country music is sad. I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times. It applies to music. Three chords and the truth — that’s what a country song is. There is a lot of heartache in the world.

Three chords and the truth - that's what a country song is.

When you're singing, you're using extra muscles, and it requires a lot of exercise and breathing. You can't do that if you're a sissy. If I have any fitness advice for people, I'd tell them to sing more. It's good therapy, too.

You could make any song sound creepy if you wanted. It's all about the inflection.

I like to stick with music I know I can play. I love classical, but I don't think I could ever play it. I'm just not qualified.

Ninety-nine percent of the world's lovers are not with their first choice. That's what makes the jukebox play.

If you really want to get along with somebody, let them be themselves.

Where I grew up, Bob Wills and his western swing was very popular. And western swing is not that far from jazz and blues.

I didn't come here and I ain't leavin'.

Waylon Jennings and I had a lot of fun recording together.

I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad.

You don't have to be poor to need something or somebody.

What has changed is that nothing has changed... that's what has made me more unhappy than everything else.

I just enjoy both working and not working.

Most of the stuff I've read about me has been true.

All I do is play music and golf - which one do you want me to give up?

Sometimes there is a 36-piece orchestra going off in my stomach.

When you hear me, you know it's me, regardless of the song.

I guess if you can't sing, you better have a style!

When I'm driving the highway by myself is when I write best.

I'm not prejudiced in any way that I can think of. That's just not the guy I am.

If a song was ever good, it's still good.

I don't like to think too far ahead.

The first time I got onstage was when I was about 5 years old. It was at a church social, and I had a poem to recite.

When I was about 12, I had my first paying gig - 8 dollars to play rhythm guitar in a polka band. Pretty soon, I ended up playing in all the bars within driving distance of Abbott, Texas.

I just enjoy both working and not working. And fortunately, I work enough where I get that out of my system, and then we take a few days off, take a rest.

I started out writing poems before I figured to put melodies to them and play the guitar. Somewhere, there's a book out there on all those early songs and poems. I hope no one ever finds it. I don't think it's my finest work.

I was born in Abbott, Texas, a little small town in central Texas, and I was raised by my grandparents. And my parents divorced when I was six months old, and my grandparents raised me.

I would like to see more airplay for all artists, no matter what age. I think there's a lot of money being spent toward the young guys, but a lot of the older guys are the ones who blazed the trail for those young guys.

All my kids were raised on computers: They were home-schooled on the Internet, so they're pretty good at that stuff. And I'm proud of them, but I don't really keep up with it.

Writing books is fun because after I do a show for a couple hours, I'm in a bus for 22 hours. It's not hard for me to look out the window and tell a joke here and there.

I think most people realize that our problems are our government, not me and you individually, except that we can - must have some sort of responsibility, because they're in there and they were elected, so we have to defend ourselves on those lines.

We're still here trying to get the word out that 330 farmers are quitting every week.

I don't think any person has any special knowledge about what God has planned for me and you any more than me and you do.

But if you think of all the people who don't like me, just think of all the millions who've never heard of me!

The whole house came up and I came up with it... I was just praying to the Lord to take care of me.

There are only so many notes so there must be only so many melodies.

I think I'm basically the same guy I always was. Maybe I've learned, through experience, to rein in some of the anger and temper they say redheads normally have.

I think Ray Charles did as much as anybody when he did his country music album. Ray Charles broke down borders and showed the similarities between country music and R&B.

Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.

Everything about Sinatra was good. He had the ability to pick great songs, and once Sinatra had sung them, that pretty much was it. He pretty much put his stamp on everything.

When I see someone I think is cool, he's a pretty well-adjusted individual. He's not too affected one way or the other by what's happening, no matter what's going through his mind.

And as far as guitars go, I loved Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West's stuff.

I like myself better when I'm writing regularly.

I was influenced a lot by those around me - there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields.

I wanted to connect all people who are thinking about peace on Earth.

When we did the first one, I really thought that one would be all that would be necessary. Everybody would say 'Oh yeah, the farmers are getting screwed here, let's fix that,'

What has changed is that nothing has changed. . . . That's what has made me more unhappy than everything else.

Mainly because I'd already been paid on it . . . and paid pretty good.

My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down -- but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let's all have another round.

I'd like to see this happen time and time again, thousands of times across the country.

I have a lot of respect for the military. I like to show them that I support them every chance I get. ... We get as much out of it as (the soldiers).

I always thought Hank Williams was a great person to listen to, ... because his messages were simple, to the point, usually just three chords but they hit you right in the bone.

He's got to be there. He belongs there as much as anybody else. He's done as much as any of us to progress country music and let it be heard around the world and give it the respect it deserves.

We may have been poor, but my sister, Bobbie, and I were taught to hold our heads up high. Whether you're young or old, when you meet someone, you look 'em in the eye and speak up so you can be heard. When you look a person in the eye, you're not trying to hide who you are, plus you get a pretty good idea of who they are.

Kinky will get the politicians out of politics, but we need your help to get him on the ballot. Kinky has only a few weeks to collect over 45,000 signatures, and I'll be one of those signatures, and I hope you will, too.

It can't get much worse, 100 yards an hour, ... It's frustrating bumper-to-bumper.

I think it's true, we have to watch what we're doing. I think if we start out to make what we're trying to do work locally, using local farmers, local people, local control, not going outside and importing a lot of things - everything we need, grow it in the area and be self-sustaining - I think we can probably keep that from happening to a certain degree.

I think it's time we start looking seriously at alternative energies so we don't have to go around the world looking for oil,

I think this is a great thing that's happening. It's good for the country, it's good for Oklahoma, it's good for all of us.

We just about threw away the whole store and restocked it,

This song's been in the closet for 20 years.

completely in line with what I'm doing. Without getting too philosophical, I sort of look at life as being one scene after another anyway. That's true.

The winds of change are always blowingAnd every time I try to stayThe winds of change continue blowingAnd they just carry me away.

The song's been in the closet for 20 years. The timing's right for it to come out.

The whole house came up and I came up with it, ... I was just praying to the Lord to take care of me.

This is a moment when each of us can take stock of what we can offer to everyone affected by this catastrophe.

There's a lot of good things going on. For the last year, people have found out more and more about it, including myself. Once they get it, they like it.

This is the start of tax season, with people receiving 1040s in mail,

For helping me to grow I owe a lot I knowTo all the girls I've loved before.

It is the future. Through bio-diesel, we can reduce dependency on foreign oil and adopt an energy source that's clean, renewable and helps family farmers find new uses for their products.

Eating organic, family-grown food is important to a lot of us, so that's why it's important to take care of the family farmers. They're the backbone of the country.

It's important because we are going around the world starting wars because over oil, and we don't have to do that. We can grow our own fuel here at home, help our farmers, help our environment, help the truckers ... help the local communities.