Loretta Lynn quotes: the country star’s sassy soundbites.
“In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent.”
“Do the best you can with yourself and hope for the best.”
“You either have to be first, best, or different.”
“You’ve got to continue to grow, or you’re just like last night’s cornbread: stale and dry.”
“Nobody’s perfect. The only one that ever was, was crucified.”
“It’s important that you take care of yourself and blow off steam in the right way.”
“I don’t believe in double standards, where men can get away with things that women can’t. In God’s eyes, there’s no double standard.”
“How do you measure your value?”
“Life’s life, and everybody lives it the same way. Some of them have a little more money than others; so what? Everybody has to live the same way. I don’t care if you’ve got money or if you’re poor, you’re going to go through life about the same way.”
“I was 24 years old when I started playing. I had four kids, one right after the other. And when all four kids were in school, I started writing. My husband got me a job making $5 on a Saturday night and I thought I was gonna get rich. I saved my money up and bought me a black skirt with fringe, and these cowboy boots – they were $14 – and, well, I looked like Annie Oakley. I didn’t know that people didn’t look like that. I come to Nashville and I’m the only one who walked in looking like a country singer, with my boots and my guitar round my neck, I’ve come to sing.”
“I wasn’t the first woman in country music. I was just the first one to stand up there and say what I thought, what life was about. The rest were afraid to.”
“I was the first woman ever named Entertainer of the Year in country music.”
“When I first came to Nashville, people hardly gave country music any respect. We lived in old cars and dirty hotels, and we ate when we could.”
“I’ve seen country music go uptown, like we say, and I’m proud I was there when it happened.”
“If I had a chance to do things over again, I might not start singing. It was my husband Doolittle’s idea. He pushed me out there, the booger. And I’m out there now, so I might as well make the best of it.”
“Being on stage is the best part of my career. I just say whatever comes into my head. It’s the only time I feel grown-up and in control of things.”
“I don’t have nothing to prove but I have stuff I want to do. And my fans want me to do it too. My fans are out there with me saying, ‘Do it Loretta. Do it.'”
“You can’t be halfway in this business. If you don’t meet the fans, you lose all you’ve got.”
“Either I’m recording or I’m working on the road. So I don’t stop. I think when you get lazy, you get stale.”
“Some of my friends who know me best say they wouldn’t trade places with me for $1 million because of the pace I lead.”
“A lot of people say I’d miss show business if I quit. I’d miss some of it. Now it’s the only life I know.”
“I had to have a real reason to write a song. I wrote them about true things. And I just kind of kept that up. I’d write the words by thinking and watching. When something is bothering me, I write a song that tells my feelings. With every song I’ve ever recorded, I’m in it. I wouldn’t write about it if I wasn’t in it.”
“I lived all of it. I’ve lived a lot of stuff that I wrote. Of course Doo, my husband, wouldn’t have wanted to heard that. But I did. I never had to lie about anything I was writing about. That was my problem. I didn’t lie.”
“’You Ain’t Woman Enough’ come to me when a little girl come back stage and said her husband didn’t bring her to the show, he brought his girlfriend. This was before the show started, and she wanted me to look out the curtain and see what this girl looked like. I peeked out and there she was, painted up like you wouldn’t believe. I looked round at the little girl that was talking to me. And she didn’t have no makeup at all. And I said, ‘Honey, she ain’t woman enough to take your man.’ I went right straight to my dressing room and wrote it in 10 minutes. Ten minutes and a lot of money I made on that song.”
“Write about the truth. If you write about the truth, somebody’s living that. Not just somebody, there’s a lot of people.”
“I don’t have a thing to prove, but if I write, I’m gonna prove something. Don’t do anything that you can’t do best. I don’t believe in doing something that I don’t know is good. If I go back to writing, I bet there will be a good song out of it. If I write 10 songs, there will be three good ones out of it. I won’t dedicate my life to something that’s not good.”
“Let’s hope this is something I’m gonna be doing for a while. I’m gonna sing, sing, sing.”
“It’s a shame that when you’re young, you don’t realize you’re going to get old. You don’t realize that you’re gonna wake up tomorrow, 50, when you’re 20. It passes just like that.”
“I’ve been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.”
“I was married when I wasn’t quite 14 and had four babies by the time I was 18.”
“I believe in education and wish I had a better one. I ain’t got much education, but I got some sense.”
“I’m trying to lead a good Christian life, so there ain’t too much spicy to tell about me.”
“I wouldn’t have dared ask God for all that He’s given me. I couldn’t have done it on my own. I thank God every day for what I have.”
“My life has run from misery to happiness.”
“I love people and I love to sing, and that’s what keeps me going.”
“I ain’t ready to lay down and die. I don’t see no reason to quit right now. When they put me six feet under then you can say she’s quit singing.”
“I don’t have to work nowadays. But you know what? I can’t stand not working. The harder you work, the better you are.”
“Really, I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I retire. Wash dishes?”
“Working keeps you young. I ain’t ever gonna stop. And when I do, it’s gonna be right on stage. That’ll be it.”
Related: Reba McEntire quotes.
