Dolly Parton — who turns 71 eld honest-to-god today — is a prolific ballad maker , performer , and businesswoman . She ’s been put up for 46 Grammys ( and pull ahead eight ) and has sold over 100 million albums . But over the years , Dolly has become far-famed for not just her medicine but also her clever one - lining , ego - deprecating gag , and encourage advice , all told with her trademark smile and good - natured giggle .
1. ON TODAY’S MUSIC INDUSTRY
“ Everything ’s high - technical school and I ’ve just been embroil screaming and kicking into the twenty-first C . But I essay to besiege myself with folks that keep up with it . It ’s altogether different now , but it ’s wonderful that I ’m still here . I say that I ’m as old as yesterday , but hopefully as unexampled as tomorrow . ”
— From a 2014 audience withToday Show
2. ON HER FAMILY’S HUMBLE ORIGINS IN RURAL TENNESSEE
“ The kids spend a penny on me every night … There were so many of us . We sleep three and four in the bottom . I would wash every night , and as soon as I go to layer , the kids would wet on me and I ’d have to get up in the break of day and do the same thing … That was the only lovesome thing we recognise in the wintertime sentence . That was almost a pleasure to get peed on because it was so cold . Lord . It was as cold in the way as it was outside . We ’d bundle up to go to bed . ”
— From a 1978 interview withPlayboy
3. ON HER CLOTHING CHOICES
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" I like all that frilly stuff . Like I ’ve always said , it ’s a undecomposed thing I was a girl , or I ’d definitely have been a drag queen ! Most emphatically . "
— From a 1999 interview onThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno
4. ON WEARING CONSERVATIVE ATTIRE FOR HER ROLE IN9 TO 5
" It ’s really a wholly unlike looking at for me … I loved the movie and I enjoyed doing it , but I could n’t expect to get out of those little suits and get into my trashy stuff . "
— From a 1992 interview onLive with Regis & Kathie Lee
5. ON HER GUILT COMPLEX
" I have a guilt complex about being the one that ’s so successful when so many of them [ other performers ] are so much more talented than me . And so many friends that I roll in the hay in Nashville that have twice the endowment that I ’ve had , that I ’ve seen them come and go through the twelvemonth and never see their aspiration come on-key . "
— From a 2012 consultation withNPR
6. ON HER SECRET TO STAYING MARRIED FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS
“ I stay put departed . [ Laughs ] … He ’s a well guy ; we know each other so well . I know every line in his face , and he knows every hair in my wig . ”
7. ON ACHIEVING HER DREAMS
Circa 1977.Jay Phagan via Flickr//CC BY 2.0
" Now the night I graduated from Sevier County High School , back in 1964 , we were all asked to stand up and talk about what we were get going to do with the rest of our lives . And everybody had a different story . And when it came my time I stand up powerful up there . I said I ’m going to Nashville and I ’m proceed to be a principal . Well the whole place laugh out loud . And I was so chagrined , cause I thought , ' How curious . Why is everybody laughing ? ‘Cause that is what I ’m going to do . ' But as bad as I mat at that import and as abashed as I was , it did not shake me from my dream . So I guess I showed them , huh ? "
— From her 2009 University of Tennessee , Knoxvillecommencement speech
8. ON HOW SHE KEEPS HER ENERGY UP
" I just reckon on a spate of prayer and speculation . I conceive that without God I am nobody , but that with God , I can do anything . "
— From a 1980 audience withRoger Ebert
9. ON STARTING DOLLYWOOD
" I really wish that y’ all could have view the feeling on my lawyer ’s aspect 24 long time ago when I told him I want to start a theme park and call it Dollywood . He think I ’d already take the train to Crazywood . "
10. ON WHETHER SHE WEARS IN-EAR MONITORS ON STAGE
" No , I have too much fuzz ! And too much other poppycock going on . I ca n’t stand that in my ear . I figure I ’ll be fag hearing aids before long enough . "
— From a 2003 interview onOprah
11. ON HER DECISION TO WEAR ATTENTION-GRABBING WIGS AND EXTREME CLOTHES
" It ’s certainly a option . I do n’t like to be like everybody else . I ’ve often made the statement that I ’d never stoop so humble as to be stylish . That ’s the easiest thing in the world to do . "
— From a 1977 interview withBarbara Walters
12. ON HER LEGACY
“ Now people are always asking me , What do you want the great unwashed to say about you 100 years from now ? ' I always say I need them to say ‘ Dang , do n’t she still reckon effective for her age ’ . ”
13. ON BEING A HILLBILLY
“ I ’m proud of my hillbilly , clean rubbish background . To me that preserve you humble ; that keeps you ripe . And it does n’t matter how hard you taste to outrun it — if that ’s who you are , that ’s who you are . It ’ll show up once in a while . ”
— From a 2014 interview withSouthern know
14. ON THINKING LIKE A MAN
“ I grew up in a family of 12 children and six of those kids were son . I was very close to my dad , and my uncles and my grandad , and my brothers , so I refer to men . I understand the nature of men . I always say that I look like a adult female , but I think like a gentleman’s gentleman , or Icanthink like a man . ”
— From a 2014 interview withBust
15. ON BELONGING
" I never matte up I belonged . Never belonged in my whole life , even as a little shaver . I was just different and so I never really bump my place till I moved to Nashville and suffer in the music business . That was my real position , so I fit in . "
— From a 1977 interview withRolling Oliver Stone
16. ON HOW MANY WIGS SHE OWNS
“ I do n’t know , I ’ve get well things to do than count them . But I jade one every day of the week , so probably 365 . ”
— From a 1984 audience withInterview Magazine(conducted by Andy Warhol )
17. ON HER FLAMBOYANT COSTUMES
" I never let a rhinestone go unturned ! "
— From a 2015tweetby Dolly Parton
18. ON EMOTIONS
" I ’m a very sensitive person . I ’m a songwriter , so I have to live with my feelings on my arm . I have to not indurate my heart , because I want to stay on open to finger things . So when I hurt , I hurt all over . And when I cry , I cry real hard . And when I ’m mad , I ’m unhinged all over . I ’m just a mortal ; I like to experience whatever the touch sensation is and whatever I ’m belong through . "
19. ON ALL THE REFERENCES TO HER BIG BUST
" It do n’t bother me so much unless mass dwell on it . Get tacky and all . It ’s part of the act . If someone gets really carried away , well , I sort of pity him . Cause it ’s his trouble , not mine . Other than that , I ’m a good sportsman . I know some of the just Dolly Parton prank . I made ‘em up myself . "
20. ON HER RUMORED TATTOOS
“ mass say that the reason I wear sleeves is because I have snakes tattooed all over [ my arms ] . I say ‘ No , I do n’t ! ’ I do have a few footling tattoo , but they were mostly done to cover cicatrix because I ’m so fairish . ”
21. ON WHAT ACTRESS SHOULD PLAY HER IN A MOVIE
" Hmmmm . I dunno . Maybe if Sissy Spacek made enough money off of playin ' Loretta Lynn , she could get herself a boob job . "
22. ON CHOOSING BETWEEN BIG BOOBS OR BIG HAIR
“ Uhhhhh … I could n’t find fault one . I ’d have to find fault three . ”
23. ON SONGWRITING
“ It ’s therapy . It ’s sport . It ’s creative . I sleep together getting on a grown writing binge and stay put up a yoke Clarence Day solve on a song and knowing at the end of those two or three twenty-four hours that I ’ve created something that was never in the world before . It ’s like a feeling of produce , not that the same stories ai n’t been severalize before , but it ai n’t been told through my percentage point of sight . And it ’s my elbow room of relax . Songwriting is a rocking horse and to me it ’s therapy . It ’s a joy . It ’s a thrill . It ’s like mind exercises or something . ”
— From a 1990 audience withAmerican Songwriter
24. ON BEING A LIVING LEGEND
Timothy Wildey via Flickr//CC BY - NC 2.0
“ I do n’t know ! Am I livin ’ ? Am I a caption ? You never know how people are going to look at you till you ’re elder and you search back at your living . So far I ’ve been very pleased that , you know , my life has turned out the way it has , and I do n’t take it for grant . I owe a lot of credit to God and folk for facilitate me along the way , so I did n’t do this all by myself . ”
— From a 2015 consultation withMashable
25. ON OTHER ARTISTS COVERING HER SONGS
“ I ’m always flattered that anybody would immortalize my songs , even if they commute them . sure one of my songs , I ’ll pick up somebody do it and I ’ve had mixed emotion . I think either ‘ Wow , that ’s great . I never thought of hearing it like that ’ or I ’ll think ‘ Oh Lord , they ’ve deflower that Song dynasty . ' But you ’re still glad as a writer that they did it , no matter how it turns out . You ’re just glad that somebody care your song enough to read it . But you do have your favorite . I opine the ones I ’d like to register my songs right now are the one having hits and make me the most money . ”
26. ON HER IMAGE
" It costs a hatful of money to look this crummy ! "
— An oft - used citation , as in thisVanity Fairarticle
