Merle Haggard Quotes
In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now.

Quotes to Explore
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My journey has been that of a character actor.
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My mother had an illegal abortion in 1960, which was the year the birth control pill came out, but I guess a little late for her, but - and I never knew. I found out when my father, after her death, got her FBI file.
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Comedy is a tool of togetherness. It's a way of putting your arm around someone, pointing at something, and saying, 'Isn't it funny that we do that?' It's a way of reaching out.
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When you look at the lyrics of 'Sometimes When We Touch,' it's really very much an adolescent song.
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I tried snowboarding, and that scared the hell out of me.
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Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.
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I was never a Boy Scout, but oh, I wanted to be one when I was a kid about ten or eleven years old. But there wasn't anyplace where I could ever join the Boy Scouts.
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Religion is a matter of the heart. No physical inconvenience can warrant abandonment of one's own religion.
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I don't want to smoke on screen, as I will be sending a wrong message to my fans, and I appeal to my costars too, to avoid smoking scenes if possible.
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Fashion choices are never arbitrary. Even if you say you don't care, that's a decision. There's something you're trying to say.
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I have 18 cars, but I never had a Rolls-Royce.
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All athletes speak about the mental element of athletics, and it usually boils down to the same thing: if you can remove your ego from the game, you can function with much more clarity and you are more likely to succeed. Wouldn't it be interesting if we all began speaking about the mental element of our lives in this way?
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Writing 'Native Guard,' I didn't know I was working on a single book. I began writing that book because I was interested in the lesser-known history of these black soldiers stationed off the coast of my hometown.
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A straight writer can write a gay novel and not worry about it, and a gay novelist can write about straight people.
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Growing up, I would watch a movie on video and would go to the back of the VHS and locate the address for Universal Pictures or MGM or whatever. I'd write to the studios asking them if I could be in a movie. They never wrote me back.
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I've always looked upon the Ducks as caricature human beings. Perhaps I've been years writing in that middle world that J.R.R. Tolkien describes, and never knew it.
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We can never say it often or loudly enough: Immigrants and refugees revitalize and renew America.
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Barry Manilow has gone from being the love of my life to being a friend for life.
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I'm not looking for people to put that vote on me to be prom king of the UFC.
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America in particular imposes an horrendous burden on the world. We have this wonderful standard of living but it comes at enormous cost.
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I don't believe that the American dream should be reserved for those who are born into the elite or somehow have been given an advantage over others. My growing-up experience is probably the most important thing that guides my priorities and my work today.
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The primary aim, object, and purpose of consciousness is control. Consciousness in a mere automaton is a useless and unnecessary epiphenomenon.
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In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now.