Carlene Carter Quotes

"I love to be surrounded by nature."

"I've always had wanderlust to try and do different things, but I always return to the music of the Carter family."

"My mom is a great entertainer."

"Eccentricity has never been discouraged in our family."

"If someone gets married at 15, they're either dumb or pregnant. I was both."

"Don't try to be like somebody else. You'll be miserable. You need to be yourself, and don't ever get a big head."

"I grew up quick because my family was away a lot, and I took care of my sister. Then in my 20s, I went through my teens, with these 'wild abandon' things."

"I started playing piano when I was 6, ukulele at 7."

"My Smiths, my Carters, the Cashes - everybody embraced me and held my arms up when I couldn't do it myself."

"I'm kind of a perfectionist about my songwriting. If I don't mean it, I don't think it's any good."

"I've had a few ditty hits."

"I moved back to Tennessee in '86 or '87. That's when I worked with the Carter Family because I really wanted to understand my roots."

"Lots of girls marry at 16 in Tennessee."

"There was a period where I was a little scared that I'd blown my chance."

"I've matured as a writer and human being. I've got some wisdom under my belt."

"I'm really about my family and really proud of being a Carter."

"I was thinking about it: so many of my stories are about my family life, not about being related to a lot of famous people. That's my grandma, that's my mama, my daddy, my aunt, my uncle, my stepdaddy. I'd probably tell them even if they weren't well known."

"I always wanted to be the rockin'est country chick in the universe."

"I'm pretty much an open book."

"My songs are about who I am."

"There are no rules when it comes to songwriting, so I'd turn Carter family songs from the 1930s into pop songs."

"If someone asked me to do something I didn't want to do or didn't think was right, I wouldn't do it."

"Sometimes, it's good to stick to your guns."

"There's something unnatural about losing a sibling when they're young."

"I don't know how I got out of some of the scrapes I was in. But I know that there's some sort of plan."

"I've always been one of those people - once I start something, I have to get it all out, because it gets me."

"I like things all shined up and rocking with hooky pop choruses."

"I don't really have any ditties left in me anymore."

"I'm a bubbling brew of emotions, but mostly, I'm an optimistic person."

"I'd had three husbands by 23. The second was a songwriter who couldn't handle the fact the little lady was doing better than him."