Dolly Parton

My mama never wore a pair of pants when I was growing up, and now that's all she wears. It was so funny for me when I first started seeing Mama wear pants. It was like it wasn't Mama. Now I've bought her many a pantsuit because she just lives in them.

I had nothing growing up, but I always wanted to be 'sexy,' even before I knew what the word was.

My philosophy is simple: It's a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.

They say somebody's 'street smart.' I feel like, if I got intelligence, it's just a country smart.

A lot of people have said I'd have probably done better in my career if I hadn't looked so cheap and gaudy. But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn't be blamed because you want to look pretty.

I've enjoyed all the parts of my career.

If I'd married someone in show business, there'd be too much competition.

My biggest extravagances are also investments. I have several houses in California, a house in Nashville, an office complex, and I bought the old home place in Tennessee. They are different places for me to write, but I can turn right around and sell them.

I've been to those places where it's 'poor, pitiful me.'

I've never had that much trouble with the paparazzi, but I don't run the same circles that a lot of these people that do get hounded by the paparazzi.

I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.

I'm an energy vampire. I just suck off everybody's energy. But I give it back.