Quotes from Tom T. Hall

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 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.

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

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

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 am a fan of history.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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 was quite a reader before I became a writer.

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 hid out. I was never big enough a star.

I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.

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

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

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.

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.

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.