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Dolly Parton
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“If I had to give up performing, it wouldn't bother me too much. But I couldn't live without my writing. I put all my feelings, my very soul, into my writing. I tell the world in my songs things I wouldn't even tell my husband.”
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“It's almost like being trapped in some other form. The real me is so different from the way I look on the outside.”
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“When you come from where I come from, if anyone in the family makes it out, the others kind of come with you.”
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“If I seem strange to people, I guess it's because I look so artificial and I am so real. My looks sort of collide with the way I am.”
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“... lots of women buy just as many wigs and makeup things as I do ... They just don't wear them all at the same time.”
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“If I could get their attention long enough, I felt they would see beneath the boobs and find the heart, and that they would see beneath the wig and find the brains. I think one big part of whatever appeal I possess is the fact that I look totally one way and that I am totally another. I look artificial, but I'm not.”
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“You have no idea how much it costs to make a person look this cheap.”
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“Ah see you out there with your binoculars, and Ah know jes' what you're lookin' at. But what you didn't realize is that you didn't need your binoculars.”
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“[On growing up in a large family with little money:] ... to take a bath ... we just had a pan of water and we'd wash down as far as possible, and we'd wash up as far as possible. Then, when somebody'd clear the room, we'd wash possible.”
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“I always knew I was somebody. I dreamed big dreams and I got out early.”
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“I never had a doubt I would make it, because refusing to think I couldn't make it is the reason I could.”
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“When people say less is more, I say more is more. Less is less. I go for more.”
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“Music is my personal addiction. So much of everything I've done has only been to open more doors for the music itself. It all gets back to the fact that I am, first of all, a songwriter and a singer.”
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“I don't look this way out of ignorance. If people think that I do, they're dumber than I am.”
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“When I sit back in my rocking chair someday, I want to be able to say I've done it all.”
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“When they say less is more, I say 'That's a crock!' More is more, and I want more. I've always wanted more.”
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“Don't lose your temper; use it.”
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“I always loved books. I don't remember learning to read, it was just something I always did. I was hungry for knowledge, I guess, and information; I was a curious kid. I still am.”
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“It costs a lot to make a person look this cheap.”
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“The worst thing about poverty is not the actual living of it, but the shame of it.”
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“People tend to fear what they do not know, and what they fear they dislike.”
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“Music, I suppose, will be the thing that sustains me in the time of my life when I am too old for sex and not quite ready to meet God. It has always been an essential part of me.”
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“That's the great thing about a sense of humor and a sex drive, you can't wait to share it with everybody else.”
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“... I've always said that if I hadn't been a woman, I would have been a drag queen.”
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“[On why she doesn't exercise:] If I tried to jog with these boobs, I'd end up with two black eyes.”
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“Any relationship is like a house with an upstairs: it's got two stories.”
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“[On being overweight:] If I tried to haul ass, I would have to make two trips.”
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“I never want anything more than what's fair. The problem is, I never want anything less either. In the old-boy school of business, if a woman walks away from the table with what's rightfully hers, the man feels screwed ...”
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“[On 'Steel Magnolias' director Herbert Ross:] He told me I couldn't act. This was not news to me, and I told him so. 'I'm not an actress, I'm Dolly Parton. I'm a personality who has been hired to do this movie. You're the director. It's your job to make me look like I'm acting.'”
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“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.”
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“I just can't stand to look plain, 'cause that don't fit my personality. I may be a very artificial-looking person, but the good news is, I'm very real on the inside.”
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“People think I'm as shallow and superficial as I look, and it's a surprise when they find out, sure enough, I am.”
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“A peacock that rests on his feathers is just another turkey.”
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“If I see something saggin', baggin', and draggin', I'm going to nip it, tuck it, and suck it.”
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“I describe my look as a blend of Mother Goose, Cinderella, and the local hooker.”
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“[Asked how long it takes to have her hair done:] I don't know. I'm not there when my hair is done.”
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“I'm not offended by all those dumb blond jokes, because I know I'm not dumb ... and I also know that I'm not blond.”
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“I bought all those [fitness] videos — Richard Simmons, Jane Fonda. I love to sit and eat cookies and watch 'em.”
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“I'm on a seafood diet — I see food, I eat it.”
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“I don't know what the big deal is about old age. Old people who shine from inside look 10 to 20 years younger.”
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“People say you shouldn't have plastic surgery because if God wanted you another way he would have made you that way, but I say that's a lot of crock. If God didn't want plastic surgeons, he wouldn't have given them hands to work with.”
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“If people think I'm a dumb blonde, because of the way I look, then they're dumber than they think I am. If people think I'm not very deep because of my wigs and outfits, then they're not very deep.”
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“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
Dolly Parton, U.S. songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, actor, philanthropist
(1946)
Real name: Dolly Rebecca Dennison Dean.