Tom T. Hall Quotations

Whiskey's to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.

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

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

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.

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.

I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.

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 never fixed a story. I didn't make judgments, I let the listener make judgments. When I got to the end of the story, if it had a moral, I let the listener find it.

My best album is called In Search Of A Song. That was my best shot right there. My finest hour, as they say. I could listen to the whole thing all the way through. There's nothing really crammed into it.

Religion is a strange, wonderful thing. More crimes have been committed in the name of righteousness than any other notion.

My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.

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

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.

After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.

I had the notion that I wanted to write the great dirty American novel, so I went to Roanoke College on the GI Bill.

The first guy who came up with the concept of religion was sitting out under a tree. I'm sure of that.

I was quite a reader before I became a writer.

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

People think because you're private, you have something you don't want them to know.

Faulkner was almost oriental. I never got into Faulkner.

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

It used to be that youd have a song recorded by a major country artist and if it was a hit, you could buy a car. Now you can buy a dealership.

I think the nature of songwriters is that they are philosophers, and philosophers have a bent towards poetry and songwriting, so I think that the two run around together. The nature of a songwriter could be philosophical. Looking for universal ideas, a way to say things, get the story across as a means of entertaining, provoking thought.

I am a fan of history.

Me and Jesus got our own thing going on. We don't need anybody to tell us what it's all about.

A monkey was the President, though maybe not the first. And there was peace and harmony throughout the universe.

She gave her heart to Jethro and her body to the whole wide world.

I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups, bourbon in a glass, and grass.

I took up a sort of a hobby of just hanging around the local library. I'd pick out an author and I would read all their books.

Make your melodies simple enough so that the average person can hum them.

It is so important for me to try, and having tried I look back on failure and success as if it were all the same.

A song is a poem set to music.

Nobody knows a hit before it's a hit.

Songwriting is as much a craft as a talent.

I've been polite and I've always shown up. Somebody asked me if I had any advice for young people entering the business. I said: "Yeah, show up.

Is this really Butte, Montana, or just existential blues?

Sinclair Lewis was asked one time to give a talk to class of students about writing. When he got there he asked the class, Do you people want to be writers?and they all said yes. Then Lewis said, Why the hell aren't you at home writing?

I knew a lot of chords, but they weren't the chords that came with the melody that came with the idea I had for the song. Melodies are simple things. If you see a train wreck, there's a melody. If you see a little daisy blowing in the breeze, there's a melody.

Old dogs care about you, even when you make mistakes.

I don't know why songwriters struggle. They have to, I guess. If you're a young songwriter, quit struggling. It makes you look bad.

The enticing allure of Nashville is that there is always something new coming down the pike. Put this record on and you’ll hear footsteps.

If they want to come out and watch me paint or dig potatoes or mend fences, I don't care. I don't do interviews not because I have anything to hide, but when you retire, the word has a meaning to me. 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.

It's Faster horses, Younger women, Older whiskey and More money.

When I first got to Nashville, somebody said that [Kris Kristofferson and I] were the only two people who could describe Dolly Parton without using their hands.

God bless little children while they're still too young to hate.