John Prine Quotes
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Never wear your necktie while you're operating a lathe.
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I hate to admit it to my wife, but I only wear two outfits on the road, and then a third one during the day, but I carry about 20.
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When I was a mailman, writing songs was my escape from the regular world, and now writing songs is my job. And I've always been one to avoid my job.
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I embraced loneliness as a kid. I know what loneliness is. When you're at the end of your rope. I never forget those feelings.
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To tell you the truth, the nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame totally surprised me. I had no idea that was coming. I know a lot of people like to say it's enough just to be nominated. But I've been nominated for so many things, I'd like to get this one. I think it's a long shot, considering I never had a No. 1 rock n' roll record.
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It was always difficult for me to listen to my singing voice for the first 20 years or so. I mean, I really enjoyed singing, and I enjoyed doing live shows, but being in a recording studio and having to hear my voice played back to me would really drive me up the wall.
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There is a certain comedy and pathos to trouble and accidents. Like when a driver has parked his car crookedly and then wonders why he has the bad luck of being hit.
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My first Grammy nomination? I was 24 - I was nominated for best new artist of the year.
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Even when I was coming up in the singer-songwriter ranks during the early '70s, I thought that people who were stylists and stuff shoulda still been up on the pedestal. I mean, it's fine to recognize people who write songs, but it kinda got out of hand, you know?
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It's usually drawing on personal experience. I don't think I could dig deep enough trying to get into somebody else's life. Like 'Far From Me' - I wrote it about this waitress that I was dating when I was fifteen or so, and she broke up with me.
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I think the best duets are those where there's a dialogue back and forth, and then the two singers go into a thing together.
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I'll go to the movies and hear 'Angel From Montgomery' in some film, and nobody ever even told me about it. They don't tell you your stuff is going to be in a movie. They don't have to, so they don't tell you. You get paid eventually.
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The Songwriters Hall of fame, that's the one all the big-time writers get into, the really great stuff, the Broadway stuff and all that. That would be something, to get your name in there.
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I'm kind of like the Lone Ranger or Batman. I can just go to my mansion and jump out in my uniform and sing on weekends.
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If I can make myself laugh about something that I should be crying about, that's pretty good.
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I guess I just process death differently than some folks. Realizing you're not going to see that person again is always the most difficult part about it. But that feeling settles, and then you are glad you had that person in your life, and then the happiness and the sadness get all swirled up inside you.
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My fans have always taken care of me.
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I sound like that old guy down the street that doesn't chase you out of his apple tree.
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Johnny Cash was like Abraham Lincoln to me.
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I have to have something that really excites me in order to write about it.
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The only reason I figured out I didn't like my old records to listen was I could hear how nervous I was and how uncomfortable I was. And who would want to sit around and listen to yourself being uncomfortable?
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I had a year-round Christmas tree with nothing but colored vinyl 45s hanging on it, like, old Elvis records and stuff.
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People thought we were crazy for starting a record company. They really thought I was shooting myself in the foot.
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I was kind of shy as a lad, and a lot of things that made me laugh, I found, did not make other people laugh.