Tom T. Hall famous quotes

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Beer #Cost #Gears

I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Trying #Loser #Winner

It's Faster horses, Younger women, Older whiskey and More money.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Horse #Alcohol #Whiskey

Make your melodies simple enough so that the average person can hum them.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Simple #Average #Enough

Songwriting is as much a craft as a talent.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Crafts #Talent #Songwriting

Nobody knows a hit before it's a hit.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Nobody Knows

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Country #Hands #Two

A song is a poem set to music.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Song

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Trying #Important #Looks

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Country #Song #Artist

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Attitude #Journey #Care

I was quite a reader before I became a writer.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Reader

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Kids #This Generation #Generations

The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Song #Finding Yourself #Littles

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Ideas #Firsts #Artistic

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Song #Nashville #One Day

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?
-- Tom T. Hall

#Writing #Home #Class

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Song #Writing #Simple

If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I'd figure her career was as dead as mine!
-- Tom T. Hall

#Careers #Figures #Barbara

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

#Names #Strange #Wonderful

The first guy who came up with the concept of religion was sitting out under a tree. I'm sure of that.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Tree #Guy #Firsts

I am a fan of history.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Fans

I never hid out. I was never big enough a star.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Stars #Enough #Bigs

I'm a very comfortable and happy-go-lucky old man. I never wanted to be great, because I'd just get worried.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Men #Lucky #Worried

I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Book #Reading #Writing

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Song #Way #Albums

Is this really Butte, Montana, or just existential blues?
-- Tom T. Hall

#Philosophy #Montana #Existential

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Success #People #Advice

Old dogs care about you, even when you make mistakes.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Dog #Mistake #Care

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Kids #Brain #Way

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

#Religious #Jesus #Religion

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

#President #Monkeys #Firsts

She gave her heart to Jethro and her body to the whole wide world.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Heart #Infidelity #World

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

#People #Theory

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
-- Tom T. Hall

#Attitude #Journey #Quitting

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Nashville #Records #Something New

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Struggle #Looks #Quitting

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

#Dirty #Writing #College

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

#Thinking #People #Want

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Stories #Moral #Judgment

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

#Thinking #Years #People

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

#Perfect #Musical #Instruments

I have my own religion. I'm sort of one-quarter Baptist, one-quarter Catholic, one-quarter Jewish.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Catholic #Baptists #Quarters

God bless little children while they're still too young to hate.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Children #Hate #Reality

I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups, bourbon in a glass, and grass.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Coffee #Glasses #Alcohol

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.
-- Tom T. Hall

#Book #Library #Hobbies