62 Johnny Cash Quotes

Johnny Cash quotes

1. Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.

2. I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there is nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.

3. I love the freedoms we got in this country, i appreciate your freedom to burn your flag if you want to, but i really appreciate my right to bear arms so i can shoot you if you try to burn mine.

4. Cash: I went into a coma and I was there for 12 days. They all thought I was dying and they couldn't diagnose what was wrong with me. They finally came up with a diagnosis of Shy-Drager syndrome. It was few months later they realized I didn't have that so it was Parkinson's. And then it was not that. Then finally it was autonomic neuropathy. ... And I'm pretty well resolved to the fact that that's what it is. And it's a slow process of the nerve endings. King: No cure? Cash: No, I don't think so. But that's all right. There's no cure for life either.

5. I'm not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I'm thrilled to death with life. Life is - the way God has given it to me was just a platter - a golden platter of life laid out there for me. It's been beautiful.

6. People say, Well, he wore that body out. Well, maybe I did. But it was to a good purpose. They should be thankful that I wore it out to the purpose I wore it out and that was writing and recording and touring and doing concerts. Everywhere I could possibly do them that I thought I might enjoy them. I thought people might enjoy me.

7. The line 'because you're mine, I walk the line.' It kept coming to me, you know? But I was - I was ... young and not been married too long. Yes, it kept coming to me. Because you're mine, I walk the line. And then the words just naturally flowed. It was an easy song to write.

8. I think it speaks to our basic fundamental feelings, you know. Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does.

9. There's always rhythm going in my mind. ... I'm either singing them - June will tell you, I'm either singing them, or I have got the beat going from one, or I'm writing one.

10. You can ask the people around me. I don't give up. I don't give up... and it's not out of frustration and desperation that I say I don't give up. I don't give up because I don't give up. I don't believe in it.

11. 'The Man Comes Around' is a song that I wrote, it's my song of the apocalypse, and I got the idea from a dream that I had - I dreamed I saw Queen Elizabeth. I dreamed I went in to Buckingham Palace, and there she sat on the floor. And she looked up at me and said, 'Johnny Cash, you're like a thorn tree in a whirlwind.' And I woke up, of course, and I thought, what could a dream like this mean? Thorn tree in a whirlwind? Well, I forgot about it for two or three years, but it kept haunting me, this dream. I kept thinking about it, how vivid it was, and then I thought, Maybe it's biblical. So I found it. Something about whirlwinds and thorn trees in the Bible. So from that, my song started and... 'The Man Comes Around.' The song turned out to be 'The Man Comes Around.'

12. A person knows when it just seems to feel right to them. Listen to your heart.

13. Children, all your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate... I choose love.

14. Compassion is something I have a lot of, because I've been through a lot of pain in my life. Anybody who has suffered a lot of pain has a lot of compassion.

15. Country radio doesn't program hardly anybody over 40. Country music is about tradition. And they're losing that tradition. In my mind, anyway.

16. Every possession is just another stick to beat yourself with.

17. How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.

18. I am not a Christian artist, I am an artist who is a Christian.

19. I do believe the sum extent of the messiness, disarrangement, disorder, and dirtiness of your room is equal to that of your brain.

20. I have a new album out. It's American Recordings, it was done with an American Recording company, and was recorded in America.

21. I haven't had any particular direction in my music. I just do it the way I feel it at the time.

22. I just want to be remembered as a good daddy.

23. I learn from my mistakes. It's a very painful way to learn, but without pain, the old saying is, there's no gain.

24. I never did understand the resentment about Country artists 'going pop'. Either you've got what it takes to appeal to a whole lot of people, or you don't.

25. I wouldn't let anybody influence me into thinking I was doing the wrong thing by singing about death, hell and drugs. Because I've always done that, and I always will.

26. If you aren't gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.

27. If you don't get outside every day, even for a minute, you have not appreciated what God has done. It makes you grateful for our surroundings, and it starts your day differently.

28. It makes me so mad that some people underestimate the wisdom and energy of young people. All because they don't look the way older folks think they should look. I'm working on a song about it. Maybe some of those closed minded people will realise long hair and tattoos don't mean they should be ignored. Close minded people are part of what's wrong with this world.

29. It's good to know who hates you, and it's good to be hated by the right people. The Klan is despicable, filthy, dirty, unkind. It's a shame sometimes that we have all these freedoms, 'cause freedom allows them to exist. I'd love to see them all thrown in prison.

30. My Mama always said she wanted her roses while she was living... not after she was gone. That's why everyone should always honour their mother and father. No matter how much you may disagree with their beliefs, those that have lived longer than us always have something to teach us, that we can take with us for the rest of our lives.

31. Some of the old songs I sing often, because they help me to reflect on where I've been and that's important for me to do - so I don't lose track of where I am going.

32. Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.

33. The best way to say anything is just to say it.

34. The Master of Life's been good to me. He has given me strength to face past illnesses, and victory in the face of defeat. He has given me life and joy where others saw oblivion. He has given new purposes to live for. New services to render and old wounds to heal. Life and love go on. Let the music play.

35. What I resent is the attempt at defamation of character, and the attempt to make my children ashamed they were born. If there's a mongrel in the crowd, it's me, because I'm Irish and one-quarter Cherokee Indian.

36. When God forgave me, I figured I'd better do it too.

37. You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone; close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. If you analyse it as you're moving forward, you'll never fall in the same trap twice, which I can't say that I haven't been guilty of doing. But my advice is, if they're going to break your legs once when you go in that place, stay out of there.

38. You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.

39. You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way.

40. We were in the studio, getting ready to work - and I popped it in, by the end I was really on the verge of tears. I'm working with Zach de la Rocha, and I told him to take a look. At the end of it, there was just dead silence. There was, like, this moist clearing of our throats and then, 'Uh, OK, let's get some coffee.'

41. There are two kinds of people, there's those who like Johnny Cash, and those that will.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

42. Every man knows that he is a sissy compared to Johnny Cash.

1. Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.

2. I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.

3. You're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good.

4. Until things are brighter.. I'm the man in black.

5. I'm thankful for a pair of shoes that feel really good on my feet; I like my shoes. I'm thankful for the birds; I feel like they're singing just for me when I get up in the morning... Saying, 'Good morning, John. You made it, John.' I'm thankful for the sea breeze that feels so good right now, and the scent of jasmine when the sun starts going down. I'm thankful...

6. I knew I wanted to sing when I was a very small boy. When I was probably 4 years old. My mother played a guitar and I would sit with her and she would sing and I learned to sing along with her.

7. No matter how much you've sinned, no matter how much you've stumbled, no matter how much you fall, no matter how far you've got from God, don't give up. You can still be redeemed. As someone says, keep the faith.

8. I met Sam Phillips when he came in [studio] and I said, I'm John Cash. I'm the one who's been calling. And if you'd listen to me, I believe you'll be glad you did. And he said, come on in. That was a good lesson for me, you know, to believe in myself.

9. My mother told me to keep on singing, and that kept me working through the cotton fields. She said God has his hand on you. You'll be singing for the world someday.

10. I started to write the song. And I was in Gladewater, Texas, one night with Carl Perkins and I said, I've got a good idea for a song. And I sang him the first verse that I had written, and I said it's called "Because You're Mine." And he said, "I Walk The Line" is a better title, so I changed it to "I Walk The Line."

11. Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way.

12. I expect my life to end pretty soon. You know, I'm 71 years old. I have great faith, though. I have unshakable faith.

13. I say I'm not a singer, so that means I can't sing. But - doesn't it?

14. However, neither he nor anyone else could have become the star Elvis was. Ain't nobody like Elvis. Never was.

15. Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkly clothes, and cowboy boots. I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I've worn black clothes ever since.

16. I'm thankful for the sea breeze that feels so good right now, and the scent of jasmine when the sun starts going down.

17. Sam Phillips asked me to go write a love song, or maybe a bitter weeper. So I wrote a song called, "Cry Cry Cry," went back in and recorded that for the other side of the record.

18. The ones that you're calling wild are going to be the leaders in a little while.

19. I keep a close watch on this heart of mine I keep my eyes wide open all the time I keep the ends out for the tie that binds Because you're mine, I walk the line.

20. Deep in the heart of the infinite darkness, a tiny blue marble is spinning through space. Born in the splendor of God's holy vision, and sliding away like a tear down his face.