Dolly Parton Quotes

It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.

Among the most prominent under-the-tree drinkers were a pair of characters named Red and Clarence. They were two of the biggest drinking carousers around, but when the spirit hit them, they could get very religious. Once Red had decided he had received the “gift of tongues,” a common practice in our Pentecostal church. He went to church a few times and would, on impulse, stand up and go into seemingly meaningless strings of syllables, to which the believers would respond with “Bless him, Lord.” The story is that one day Red and Clarence were downtown in a truck belonging to one of them, and Red looked out the window and was reading a sign, somewhat haltingly. “E-CON-O-MY-AU-TO-SUP-PLY, Economy Auto Supply,” Red sputtered, to which Clarence, assuming his friend had gone into “tongues,” quickly came back with, “Bless him, Lord.”
That story circulated through the ranks of the church membership and was the source of great laughter for a time around the Parton household. It became something of a running joke that would crop up whenever anybody said anything that could be mistaken for “tongues.” Sunday morning, getting ready for church, a brother would say, “Come tie my bow tie,” and some smart-aleck sibling would shout, “Bless him, Lord,” and the rest of us would join in, all pretending to be caught up in the spirit.

One day I was standing with my stage manager, Sandy Prudden, and Buddy Sheffield watching as Kermit the Frog (with the help of the late Jim Henson) sweetly sang a song. Sandy was always a big joker. He sidled up to me and said, “Isn’t it amazing the way Kermit can sing like that with somebody’s hand up his ass.” Without missing a beat, I came back with, “Shoot, that ain’t nothin’. I did that for seven years on the ‘The Porter Wagoner Show.

Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin'
Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin'
They just use your mind and you never get the credit
It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it
9 to 5, yeah they got you where they want you
There's a better life, and you dream about it, don't you?
It's a rich man's game no matter what they call it
And you spend your life puttin' money in his wallet

I love being busy, I'm very creative, I'm very inventive, and there are a lot of people a lot smater than me but I've always said I'm a very professional Dolly Parton, I know what I can do what I want to do, and what I believe is best for me.
Like when I started the imagination library, I wanted to have a charity that was something that I could believe and, something that meant something that was personal to me. And so that's how I built my whole life whether it be the theme park, production companies, or whatever.

There's some that constantly put monkeys on your back. It's their monkey, but somehow you end up carrying it. Often there are people who really care, but they constantly have problems and they want to share it with you and you're constantly trying to fix things for them. In truth, you're worried more about their problems than you do your own. Be weary of the monkeys.

help us give books to kids who need them. Who crave them. And whose lives will be forever changed by them.

There's some that constantly put monkeys on your back. It' their monkey, but somehow you end up carrying it. Often there are people who really care, but they constantly have problems and they want to share it with you and you're constantly trying to fix things for them. In truth, you're worried more about their problems than you do your own. Be weary of the monkeys.

The doc swore she came out screamin' in the key of E.

I think you need to make friends with yourself, you need to be your own best friend.You need to know who you are, and there's that famous saying of mine is to find out who you are, do it on purpose, and with purpose. Because you really need to know who you are.

You never do a whole lot unless your brave enough to try.'' Dolly Parton

I don't give advice, but I've got a lot of information to share.

I try to be a better me. I don't try to compete with anybody else, I'm not really that aware of what other people are doing, I'm not that interested in other people's business. I got to be my best self. I got to be me. Don't be a coward. Know who you are. Do what you do, don't be so easily influenced by other people, don't be insecure about it. You know who you are. If you don't, you need to find out, pretty soon, you can't live your whole life trying to please other people. And so I would just say go for it. Of course, I try to improve every day. If there's a better outfit, I want to wear it. If there's a better song I want to write it. If there's a better record I want to record it. I want to continue to try to be as good as I can at all my abilities. I want to make the most of them, if I want to do better movies, and I come up with new ideas all the time.

Making memories with those you love is what matters most in life.

I would sit up on top of the woodpile playing and singing at the top of my lungs. Sometimes I would take a tobacco stake and stick it in the cracks between the boards on the front porch. A tin can on top of the tobacco stake turned it into a microphone, and the porch became my stage. I used to perform for anybody or anything I could get to watch. The younger kids left in my care would become the unwilling audience for my latest show. A two-year-old’s attention span is not very long. So there I would be in the middle of my act, thinking I was really something, and my audience would start crawling away. I was so desperate to perform that on more than one occasion I sang for the chickens and the pigs and ducks. They didn’t applaud much, but with the aid of a little corn, they could be counted on to hang around for a while.