John Prine Quotes

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John Prine

Profession : Singer

Birth : October 10, 1946

I think it shows when you have to work too hard on a song.

John Prine

I'd rather get a hot dog or a doughnut than write a song.

John Prine

When you're singing somebody else's songs, it's just pure joy to me.

John Prine

'The Ways of a Woman in Love' is one of my very favorite early Johnny Cash songs. I like the way the lyric talks about the character walking by the girl's house and wishing he was the one in her arms.

John Prine

I like doing chores.

John Prine

I wrote most of 'Hello in There' in a relay box, which looks like a mail box, only bigger. Sometimes, it was so cold and windy on my mail route that I'd go inside the relay box and eat a sandwich, just to get away from the wind. I remember working on 'Hello in There' inside the relay box.

John Prine

Soon as I could play one guitar chord and laid my ear upon that wood, I was gone. My soul was sold. Music was everything from then on.

John Prine

Because of my song 'Sam Stone,' a lot of people thought I was interested in writing protest songs. Writing protest songs always struck me as patting yourself on the back.

John Prine

I used to read a lot of Steinbeck, and I admired Roger Miller and Bob Dylan.

John Prine

When I'm writing a lyric, things can only get so serious before they start becoming humorous.

John Prine

People keep inventing all these new machines, and producers and recording engineers keep wanting to use them.

John Prine

The more producers I talked to, the more I got looked at like I was crazy for wanting to make a live-sounding album.

John Prine

In high school, I was a poor student.

John Prine

I did three club tours before I started playing concert halls, and the clubs were half full the first time around.

John Prine

I take my own syrup, ketchup, and mustard, just in case of emergencies, in my suitcase. Whatever I can steal from the hotels. It's usually Heinz ketchup, and they give you a weird mustard. You don't get French's or anything; you get some sort of Dijon or some mustard. That's just for hot dogs. I don't use mustard for anything else.

John Prine

I don't like to be caught without a pick.

John Prine

I hate to admit it to my wife, but I only wear two outfits on the road, and then a third one during the day, but I carry about 20.

John Prine

I became a recording artist before I knew it. And I just - when I would listen to my old records, I'd just hear this young, extremely nervous fella that that made me want to run out of the room, you know, rather than listen to what he had to say.

John Prine

If somebody tells me to work or exercise, I go the other way. I'll come up with an excuse.

John Prine

My sense of humor has saved me more than a couple of times in my life.

John Prine