Quotes from Loretta Lynn

How do you measure your value?

Me and my partner, Conway Twitty, cleaned up at the 1972 Country Music Association Awards.

Really, I don't know what I'd do with myself if I retire. Wash dishes?

I'm always making Butcher Holler sound like the most backward part of the United States-and I think maybe it is.

There's always been a man telling me what to do.

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.

When I'd tell people I like country music they'd get this look on their faces. People were kind of ashamed of country.

I was the first woman ever named Entertainer of the Year in country music.

I've seen country music go uptown, like we say, and I'm proud I was there when it happened.

I know there's some kind of history to mountain music-like it came from Ireland or England or Scotland and we kept up the tradition.

All music is based on country music. And that's why so many different kinds of people relate to it. There are more country music fans in New Jersey than there are down South.

I don't like to talk about things where you're going to gt one side or the other unhappy. My music has no politics.

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.

Do the best you can with yourself and hope for the best.

Why leave the nut you got for one you don't know?

You have to be first, different, or great. If you're one of them, you may make it.

The night I announced I was getting married, Daddy paced for hours on the porch.

I avoid going through places where there's too much poverty.

Nobody's perfect. The only one that ever was, was crucified.

I know what it's like to be pregnant and nervous and poor.

My biggest hero, Gregory Peck, was my birthday present on April 14, 1973. I just sat and stared at him.

I loved being outside. We'd hold lightning bugs in our fingers and pretend they were diamond rings.

The country is making a big mistake not teaching kids to cook and raise a garden and build fires.

I try to visit people in hospitals when I can, smiling and joking while I'm there. But when I leave, I just start crying.