“Six foot six he stood on the groundHe weighed two hundred and thirty-five poundsBut I saw that giant of a man brought downTo his knees by love”

“Backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, I got on my knees and told her that I was going to marry her some day. We were both married to someone else at the time. ‘Ring Of Fire’—June and Merle Kilgore wrote that song for me-that’s the way our love affair was. We fell madly in love and we worked together all the time, toured together all the time, and when the tour was over we both had to go home to other people. It hurt.”

“Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.”

“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,But is there because he's a victim of the times.I wear the black for those who never read”

“I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”

“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.”

“And I'd be dead , but by God's graceDrive on, don't mean nothin'My children love me, but they don't understandAnd I got a woman who knows her manDrive on, don't mean nothin', drive on”