There are some people who physically are not beautiful. But the way they are, the way they treat people, they become beautiful, and you forget all about [their looks].

— Dolly Parton

“When I talk to a man, I can always tell what he's thinking by where he is looking. If he is looking at my eyes, he is looking for intelligence. If he is looking at my mouth, he is looking for wisdom. But if he is looking anywhere else except my chest he's looking for another man.”

— Dolly Parton

“I love thinking, I love coming up with great ideas. I just get excited. Sometimes if I get a big idea, I'm just like a kid, like I've found a new toy.”

— Dolly Parton

“I couldn't have children, I tried to for years. I've never been pregnant in my life. When I was a girl and fooling around I was scared to death I'd get pregnant, and then when I got married and wanted to have children I couldn't have any. But I don't miss it. I did for awhile, but I realize that I am everybody's mother.”

— Dolly Parton

“Music lives in me. Life is a song to me. I have the gift of rhyme, and I'm always trying to write and rhyme. Music is just natural everyday occurrence with me.”

— Dolly Parton

“I've been guilty of most of the stuff that's been said about me to some degree. And if I ain't done it, I probably will.”

— Dolly Parton

“I think the fact that I look totally artificial, but I am totally real, has its own kind of magic in it.”

— Dolly Parton

“Leave something good in every day.”

— Dolly Parton

“I wanted to be a singer, of course, but there was something about the songwriting, then and now, that is the most important thing. It's how I express myself, how I express how I see things. When I see people struggling with emotions and feelings and don't know how to put it down, I'm able to do that. It's really like a therapy, and it's like a buddy and a friend. It's a way out of a lot of things.”

— Dolly Parton

In the early days, Porter Wagoner would not exactly scold me, but he's say, 'You're writing too many damn verses. You're makin' these songs too damn long.' And I'd say, 'Yeah, but I'm tellin' a story. I have a story to tell.' And he'd say, 'Well, you're not going to get it on the radio.' If I start writing a song, I'm writing it for a reason. People would say that I had to have two verses, and a chorus, and a bridge. I tried to learn that formula.

— Dolly Parton

“When people say to me less is more I reply, 'More is more'.”

— Dolly Parton

Poor little Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan ... If those little girls slept with as many men as they say in the tabloids, why their little butts would have more fingerprints than the FBI! I kinda feel sorry for them. We should give those two a break.

— Dolly Parton

“I have been asked to pose for Penthouse on my hundredth birthday. Everybody is going to be sorry.”

— Dolly Parton

“I do wear wigs ... I sometimes make the joke about me standing on a hilltop with my hair blowing in the wind - and me too proud to run after it.”

— Dolly Parton

“I'll just wait right here for you cause I know your new love won't last. I wound easy, but I heal fast.”

— Dolly Parton

“I was blessed to have family members who encouraged me to pursue my dreams. Whether it is your parents, or your uncles or your aunts or even the neighbor down the road, it's important that kids have someone who encourages them to chase their rainbow.”

— Dolly Parton

If I hadn't been a woman, I'd have been a drag queen

— Dolly Parton

“Goodbye- please don't cry/we both know that I'm not what you need. But I will always love you.”