Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton (born 19 January 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, actress, author, and philanthropist, known primarily for her work in country music.

Quotes

 * I hope life treats you kind And I hope you have all you've dreamed of. And I wish to you, joy and happiness. But above all this, I wish you love.
 * I Will Always Love You from the album Jolene


 * If I should stay, I would only be in your way. So I'll go, but I know I'll think of you ev'ry step of the way. And I will always love you. I will always love you.
 * I Will Always Love You from the album Jolene


 * Now Momma's done away with the old black kettle she used to cook in when I was just little And the door ain't sprung on her electric range That little old farm and home we had it ain't there no more and that's too bad Folks are doing away with the simple things...
 * Old Black Kettle from the Tennessee Mountain Home album


 * They didn't understand it and I tried to make them see That one is only poor only if they choose to be Now I know we had no money but I was rich as I could be In my coat of many colors that Momma made for me Made just for me...
 * Coat of Many Colors from the album of the same name


 * You can have your choice of men but I could never love again He's the only one for me Jolene I have to have this talk with you My happiness depends on you and whatever You decide to do Jolene...
 * Jolene from the album of the same name

1980s

 * A lot of people get all turned off by the wig, the heels, the fingernails, the whole artificial bit. I do dress kinda pretty but old-fashioned. I think maybe I dress this way partly because of the image, you know, and partly because when I was a little girl growing up in a big old poor family, this was the way that the rich folks' wives dressed, when we'd see them drivin' through in their big old cars. As for the 'real me.' Well, under this wig, my own hair is about the same length and color, and I wear it about the same. But sometimes I'll dress up in a baggy old shirt and go out with my husband in a camper or something, just havin' ourselves a good time, and nobody recognizes me.
 * As quoted in "Dolly Parton: Gee, She’s So Nice" (7 December 1980), by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert


 * I just depend on a lot of prayer and meditation. I believe that without God I am nobody, but that with God, I can do anything.
 * As quoted in "Dolly Parton: Gee, She’s So Nice" (7 December 1980), by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert


 * My nails are my rhythm section, when I'm writing a song all alone. Some day, I may cut an album, just me and my nails.
 * As quoted in "Dolly Parton: Gee, She’s So Nice" (7 December 1980), by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert

2000s

 * The way I dress, for the most part, is how most people would dress for a costume party. It would scare most people to death to look this cheap or whore-y, but to me, I’m comfortable. The way I look was really a country girl’s idea of what glamour was. I patterned my look after the town tramp. I thought she was the prettiest thing in the world, with all that bleached hair and bright-red lipstick. People would say, ‘Oh, she’s just trash,’ and I’d think, ‘That’s what I want to be when I grow up.'
 * Interview with Rolling Stone (30 October 2003), as quoted in "Dolly Parton: At 57, the Country Legend Still Brims With Vitality" (28 August 2015), by Jancee Dunn, Rolling Stone


 * Even when I’m writing a modern song, I’ll find myself pulling stuff from those days before I ever left home, the days of Mama and Daddy and my grandmas and grandpas, and church days. All I ever have to do is close my eyes and just kind of go inside.
 * Interview with Rolling Stone (30 October 2003), as quoted in "Dolly Parton: At 57, the Country Legend Still Brims With Vitality" (28 August 2015), by Jancee Dunn, Rolling Stone


 * I look so totally artificial, but I’ve always been the simplest person in the world.
 * Interview with Rolling Stone (30 October 2003), as quoted in "Dolly Parton: At 57, the Country Legend Still Brims With Vitality" (28 August 2015), by Jancee Dunn, Rolling Stone


 * I think that if I am smart in business, it’s just that I’m smart about who I am. I know what I can, can’t, will and won’t do, and if I have to be strict about that, I will.
 * Interview with Rolling Stone (30 October 2003), as quoted in "Dolly Parton: At 57, the Country Legend Still Brims With Vitality" (28 August 2015), by Jancee Dunn, Rolling Stone


 * Do not confuse dreams with wishes. There is a difference. Dreams are where you visualize yourself being successful at what's important to you to accomplish. Now, dreams build convictions because you work hard to pay the price to make sure that they come true. Wishes are are hoping good things will happen to you, but there's no fire in your gut that causes you to put everything forth to overcome all the obstacles. So you have to dream more and never, ever, ever blame somebody else if it doesn't happen. That is in your department.
 * "Dolly Parton Delivers Commencement Address at the University of Tennessee 2009" (at 6m35s), University of Tennessee, Knoxville on YouTube.

2010s

 * It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.
 * Interview with Vanity Fair magazine (November 2012)


 * We [at Dollywood] don’t try to shove anything down anybody’s throat. We are very open. So many of my businesspeople and my best friends are different faiths, and I work with them, live with them, love them. The gays and lesbians, they come to our parks. I think people just know I’m a very open and accepting person. And in any religion we’re supposed to be that—we’re supposed to be kind...we’re not supposed to pass judgment. Our Bible says, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged,’ and I believe in all those kinds of things. We’re all God’s children. No matter how we try to get to heaven, we all wanna go there. We just have our own routes to take, and that’s how I look at it.
 * As quoted in "Dolly Parton talks about her ‘Judge not, lest you be judged’ philosophy" (28 August 2015), by Victoria Bekiempis, Newsweek

2020s

 * Now, that's some lines from the song that you and I did together. I know usually, at a memorial, people talk about somebody. Well, I'm gonna talk to you. 'Cause there is that place on the other side, and I'm certainly gonna see you there, little brother. You left a lot of people here with a lot of precious, precious memories. Everybody loved you. But I doubt that many of 'em loved you more than I did. Anyhow, I just want you to know that we all love you, we all miss you and I bet you're having a big laugh over all of us being sad and sorrowful and I know that would be the last thing you would want us to be. So, anyway, you made us happy while you were here, and we're happy that you're at peace. And I just want you to know that I will always love you. Goodbye, my sweet Leslie. See you over there.
 * Call Me Philliam from Call Me Kat

Quotes about Parton

 * Dolly’s big in Iceland. Her voice is immaculate, really powerful. Her character is so warm and human, and she has a great sense of humor. All my friends love Dolly, and most of them are people who would never listen to country music. It doesn’t happen very often when you get a character that is sort of larger than life. I don’t like rock music, but I like Kurt Cobain. He could be playing any style of music and I would have been interested. You know? And I think Dolly is like that. She is an incredible singer, an incredible songwriter.
 * Bjork, as quoted in "Interview: Dolly Parton" (28 August 2015), by Janice Dunn, Rolling Stone


 * I met Dolly Parton in Tennessee; her titties were filled with Hennessy. That country music really drove me crazy, but I rode that ass and said, "Yes, Miss Daisy!"
 * Joseph Foreman, "Crazy Rap" (2000)


 * it takes guts to be a woman under patriarchy. I mean, Dolly Parton is like an image of a super-femme, but she has this certain brassiness, she just has to have total guts to survive around men and to have her image be so female. She's the kind of person that a drag queen would emulate, because she is using that female, or femme facade, which is like Marlene Dietrich or Mae West or Dolly Parton or any of those gutsy women over the years who drag queens have chosen to emulate, especially the ones who do female impersonation. There's the other edge to them besides the femme facade that is totally gutsy and a real survivor of the world
 * Tede Matthews interview in Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds by Judy Grahn (1985)


 * This will sound crazy, but when I was interviewing Dolly Parton, I almost felt like she had healing powers.
 * Gene Siskel, as quoted in "Dolly Parton: Gee, She’s So Nice" (7 December 1980), by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert


 * She seemed astonishingly unaffected. It was a bizarre contrast. She looks like a totally artificial creation, with the amazing blond wig and the 6-inch skyscraper heels and the bosom that makes her, no doubt, the unchallenged record holder and defending champion at Frederick's of Hollywood. Then she walks up to you and says, "Hi! I'm Dolly Parton!" The introduction is as unnecessary as if, say, John Wayne had walked up and said, "Hi! I'm John Wayne!" What is the proper response? "Yes, of course you are”? Dolly Parton spent about half an hour shaking everybody's hand and leaving behind a wake of people telling each other, "Gee, she's really nice," as if, well, as if somehow she shouldn't have been. There is a way in which we behave in public, in situations with a lot of strangers that implies a level of polite, subtle hostility. We are reserved. We check out the room for traps and hazards. We are uncomfortable, confronted with a hundred unfamiliar faces. What Dolly did was to come in with her brash, unaffected personality and sweep away all that paranoia in a rush of good will. It left everybody standing around afterward feeling a little goofy.
 * Roger Ebert, "Dolly Parton: Gee, She’s So Nice" (7 December 1980), Roger Ebert