Song Quotes by Johnny Cash

All music comes from God.

— Johnny Cash

Life and love go on, let the music play.

— Johnny Cash

Because you're mine, I walk the line.

— Johnny Cash

I've got no deep voice today. I've got a cold. But when I was young, I had a high tenor voice.

— Johnny Cash

Sam Phillips responded most to a song of mine called, "Hey Porter," which was on the first record.

— Johnny Cash

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

— Johnny Cash

I could wrap myself in the warm cocoon of a song and go anywhere.

— Johnny Cash

If I'm anything, I'm not a singer but I'm a song stylist.

— Johnny Cash

I sang those old gospel songs for my mother, and she said, is that you? And I said, yes, ma'am. And she…

— Johnny Cash

A song stylist is, like, to take an old folk song like "Delia's Gone" and do a modern white man's version of…

— Johnny Cash

They're powerful, those songs. At times they've been my only way back, the only door out of the dark, bad places the…

— Johnny Cash

I took the easy way, and to an extent I regret that. Still, though, the way we did it was honest. We…

— Johnny Cash

When I get an idea for a song it would gel in my mind for weeks or months, and then one day…

— Johnny Cash

After about three lessons [my] voice teacher said, "Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way. You're a song stylist. Always do…

— Johnny Cash

I knew I wanted to sing when I was a very small boy. When I was probably 4 years old. My mother…

— Johnny Cash

I always loved those songs. And with my high tenor, I thought I was pretty good - you know? - almost as…

— Johnny Cash

We [with Rick Rubin] would focus on the ones that we did like, that felt right and sounded right. And if I…

— Johnny Cash

Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and…

— Johnny Cash

I got really excited about it. But then we went into the studio and tried to record some with different musicians, and…

— Johnny Cash

The first time I knew what I wanted to do with my life was when I was about four years old. I…

— Johnny Cash

In the Air Force, I had an old Wilcox Gay recorder, and I used to hear guitar runs on that recorder going…

— Johnny Cash

By the time I actually recorded Bitter Tears I carried a heavy load of sadness and outrage; I felt every word of…

— Johnny Cash

It just took the right time. I was fully confident that I was going to see Sam Phillips and to record for…

— Johnny Cash

My way of communicating with God as a boy (and often even now) was through the lyrics of a song. . .…

— Johnny Cash

The requests started coming in from other prisoners all over the United States. And then the word got around. So I always…

— Johnny Cash

We went down [Folsom Prison] and there's a rodeo at all these shows that the prisoners have there. And in between the…

— Johnny Cash

My contract with mercury PolyGram Nashville was about to expire. And I never had really been happy. The company, the record company,…

— Johnny Cash

Backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, I got on my knees and told her that I was going to marry her some…

— Johnny Cash

I would take songs that I'd loved as a child and redo them in my mind for the new voice I had,…

— Johnny Cash

Sam Phillips asked me to go write a love song, or maybe a bitter weeper. So I wrote a song called, "Cry…

— Johnny Cash

I did [picking cotton] from - until I was 18 years old, that is. Then I picked the guitar, and I've been…

— Johnny Cash

I used to sing Bill Monroe songs. And I'd sing Dennis Day songs like songs that he sang on the Jack Benny…

— Johnny Cash

I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realize when I get into them, they're no good. I don't…

— Johnny Cash

Gospel music is so ingrained into my bones. I can't do a concert without singing a gospel song. It's what I was…

— Johnny Cash

When I record somebody else's song, I have to make it my own or it doesn't feel right. I'll say to myself,…

— Johnny Cash

Every week, Dennis Day sang an old Irish folk song. And next day in the fields, I'd be singing that song if…

— Johnny Cash

My mother told me to keep on singing, and that kept me working through the cotton fields. She said God has his…

— Johnny Cash

I started to write the song. And I was in Gladewater, Texas, one night with Carl Perkins and I said, I've got…

— Johnny Cash

I had a song called "Folsom Prison Blues" that was a hit just before "I Walk The Line." And the people in…

— Johnny Cash

I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation,…

— Johnny Cash