Dolly Parton Best Quotes & Sayings

You know, I look like a woman but I think like a man. And in this world of business, that has helped me a lot. Because by the time they think that I don't know what's goin' on, I then got the money, and gone. — Dolly Parton

I've been very fortunate. — Dolly Parton

I think your values are always influenced by your family and your community. — Dolly Parton

If I can hold God's attention, I can hold the world's.. — Dolly Parton

The hardest exercise for most of us fat people is that one where we push our chairback from the dinner table. — Dolly Parton

I didn't know any gay people in my childhood. — Dolly Parton

I look like a woman, but I think like a man. — Dolly Parton

I've never been a feminist. — Dolly Parton

The bright bite in Mary Lee Kortes' voice [has] the high-mountain sunshine of Dolly Parton, with a sweet-iron undercoat of Chrissie Hynde. — David Fricke

You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try. — Dolly Parton

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that's left for you or to make one of your own. — Dolly Parton

I love story songs because I've always loved books. — Dolly Parton

I love to flirt, and I've never met a man I didn't like. — Dolly Parton

Stop this attitude that older people ain't any good anymore! We're as good as we ever were - if we ever were any good. — Dolly Parton

A minute to Dolly's like a lifetime to everybody else. — Dolly Parton

In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder. — Roger Ebert

I like to think I've been a good example and an inspiration to some people. And some people say that about me, but I'm just going about my work and doing what I do best. I'm a very professional 'Me.' — Dolly Parton

I think my life actually changed at 40. That's when you realize you can't ride the fence anymore. You either have to get on one side or the other. I think some of my best years were between 40 and 50: I got my priorities straight and life is good to me now. It's only other people who say, "God, she's 50 years old!" as if I'm over the hill. I feel like I just started. — Dolly Parton

I know some of the best Dolly Parton jokes. I made 'em up myself. — Dolly Parton

If people work for me over the years, I expect them to be paid what they're owed, but I don't expect them to be paid more than they earn. — Dolly Parton

One of the things I'm real proud of is I just made a deal with 20th Century Fox, and I've got my own production company now. I'm developing some television and movies for other people because I have a lot of fresh new ideas. To write is what I love the most. — Dolly Parton

My best country record only sold 200,000 copies. — Dolly Parton

That little Miley Cyrus ... she's like a little Elvis. The kids love her because she's Hannah Montana, but what people don't realize about her is she is such a fantastic singer and songwriter. She writes songs like she's 40 years old! — Dolly Parton

A plot without action is like pasta without garlic, like Dolly Parton without cleavage, and like a writer without his similes. — Dean Koontz

We're not all perfect. People always say to me: "Oh you seem happy all the time." But I'm not happy all the time. I'm a human being. I'm very sensitive. I hurt like anybody else. But I do try my best to have a good attitude and I set about tryin' to take care of myself knowing I'm not going to be exactly right, so I just try to see what I can do to improve every single day. — Dolly Parton

I'm trying my best to keep up with all this new technology, and I surround myself with all these wonderful people that are in the know and kind of help me out with all that. — Dolly Parton

Be the alligator girl. Be whatever your dreams and your luck will let you be. Wear your green cornflakes with pride. Snarl at the crowds, and do your best to make them flinch. Give them a quarter's worth of wonder. — Dolly Parton

We're all just a bunch of sinners, but we do the best we can. — Dolly Parton

I don't think of myself as a feminist, but if someone calls me a feminist icon, that's fine. I've always stood up for women and myself in general. I have a great love and respect, because I have had beautiful sisters, aunts and my grandmas, but I love men. I totally understand the nature of men. — Dolly Parton

I really learned to sing in church, I think, really with emotion. — Dolly Parton

Until I was a teenager, I used red pokeberries for lipstick and a burnt matchstick for eyeliner. I used honeysuckle for perfume. — Dolly Parton

No, I can't do rap music! — Dolly Parton

God is in everything I do and all my work glorifies Him. — Dolly Parton

I hope life treats you kind, and I hope you have all that you ever dreamed of, and I wish you joy and happiness. But above all of this, I wish you love. — Dolly Parton

If people think I'm a dumb blonde, because of the way I look, then they're dumber than they think I am. If people think I'm not very deep because of my wigs and outfits, then they're not very deep. — Dolly Parton

I am confident that partnering my Dollywood Company with a great company like Gaylord will create something truly special. — Dolly Parton

The only way I'd be caught without makeup is if my radio fell in the bathtub while I was taking a bath and electrocuted me and I was in between makeup at home. I hope my husband would slap a little lipstick on me before he took me to the morgue. — Dolly Parton

With me, it's so eclectic and all over the map that no one knows what to expect, ... It may not be a great career move, but all these things - singing with the Funk Brothers and the Dead, singing a Dolly Parton song - is great. I'm welcome to all these different worlds, and that's been wonderful. — Joan Osborne

Speaking of the devil, well here he comes now. Got my defenses down. And I'd go through hell to make him mine. — Dolly Parton

So here I was trying to get married to a man who hadn't really asked me, with a boss that didn't want me to and a town that wouldn't let me do it when I wanted. Yet I knew in my heart it was right. — Dolly Parton

I often get myself in love trouble because I'm so passionate; I love so much and so deep. — Dolly Parton

Living in America and, of course, just being women in general, we've got more strength than we think we do. — Dolly Parton

You don't need to buy expensive cosmetics; almost anything will do if you know how to apply it. — Dolly Parton

I can't keep somebody from being a star, and I can't make somebody a star, and nobody can. — Dolly Parton

I try to see the good in everybody, and I don't care who people are as long as they're themselves, whatever that is. — Dolly Parton

I think I became more productive through not having children. I never really had the desire to have them. My husband didn't want them either, so it worked out well. — Dolly Parton