Dolly Parton, born in 1946 in Tennessee, is an iconic American singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist. She gained fame in the 1960s with hits like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” becoming a country music legend. Parton’s versatile talents extend beyond music, with successful ventures in film and television, notably starring in “9 to 5” and “Steel Magnolias.” Additionally, she’s known for her philanthropy, notably through her Imagination Library program, promoting childhood literacy. Parton’s enduring appeal lies in her authenticity, humor, and heartfelt storytelling, capturing the hearts of audiences worldwide. With numerous awards and inductions into prestigious halls of fame, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, Dolly Parton continues to inspire and entertain, leaving an indelible mark on the entertainment industry and society as a whole.

Dolly Parton Quotes

1. “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
— Dolly Parton

2. “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
— Dolly Parton

3. “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.”
— Dolly Parton

4. “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”
— Dolly Parton

5. “Storms make trees take deeper roots.”
— Dolly Parton

6. “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”
— Dolly Parton

7. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”
— Dolly Parton

8. “Dream more, learn more, care more, and be more.”
— Dolly Parton

9. “I hope life treats you kind, and I hope you have all that you ever dreamed of, and I wish you joy and happiness. But above all of this, I wish you love.”
— Dolly Parton

10. “People will use you as long as you let them.”
— Dolly Parton

11. “Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.”
— Dolly Parton

12. “I never tried quitting, and I never quit trying.”
— Dolly Parton

13. “A great smile is a wonderful asset, but a good heart is pure gold.”
— Dolly Parton

14. “If you’re feeling low, don’t despair. The sun has a sinking spell every night, but it comes back up every morning.”
— Dolly Parton

15. “When someone shows you their true colors, believe them.”
— Dolly Parton

16. “Less is not more. More is more.”
— Dolly Parton

17. “I’m just a simple country girl.”
— Dolly Parton

18. “Don’t lose your temper; use it.”
— Dolly Parton

19. “Paradise is a state of mind.”
— Dolly Parton

20. “You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.”
— Dolly Parton

21. “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next. Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”
— Dolly Parton

22. “Its hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”
— Dolly Parton

23. “Some people say that less is more. But I think more is more.”
— Dolly Parton

24. “Don’t judge me by the cover, ’cause I’m a real good book.”
— Dolly Parton

25. “A positive attitude and a sense of humor go together like biscuits and gravy.”
— Dolly Parton

26. “God made me the way that I am and it’s my business to be true to that.”
— Dolly Parton

27. “Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.”
— Dolly Parton

28. “Some of my dreams are so big they would scare you.”
— Dolly Parton

29. “I’m on a seefood diet. I see food, I eat it.”
— Dolly Parton

30. “I pray a lot. I pray that God will show me what to do and will guide me and lead me.”
— Dolly Parton

31. “If we all climb together, we could climb the highest hill.”
— Dolly Parton

32. “Leave something good in every day.”
— Dolly Parton

33. “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
— Dolly Parton

34. “I always just thought if you see somebody without a smile, give’em yours!”
— Dolly Parton

35. “Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.”
— Dolly Parton

36. “I don’t trust anyone who does their own hair. I don’t think it’s natural.”
— Dolly Parton

37. “Jump out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition and yawn and stretch and try to come alive.”
— Dolly Parton

38. “I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.”
— Dolly Parton

39. “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.”
— Dolly Parton

40. “I believe above the storm the smallest prayer will still be heard.”
— Dolly Parton

41. “My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.”
— Dolly Parton

42. “I love bald men. Just because you’ve lost your fuzz don’t mean you ain’t a peach.”
— Dolly Parton

43. “You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can’t put a dollar sign on.”
— Dolly Parton

44. “Love is something sent from Heaven to worry the Hell out of you.”
— Dolly Parton

45. “Time marches on and sooner or later you realize it is marching across your face.”
— Dolly Parton

46. “I am a tender-hearted person, and I feel everything to the ninth degree.”
— Dolly Parton

47. “One is only poor, only if they choose to be.”
— Dolly Parton

48. “You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.”
— Dolly Parton

49. “I’m a fool to keep staying, when you’ve made hurting me such an art.”
— Dolly Parton

50. “I love traveling all over the world; but it’s true: there’s nothing like home.”
— Dolly Parton

51. “I always ask God to work through me and let me be a light of some kind and help in this world, so I always pray for that, and I always want to do good.”
— Dolly Parton

52. “I think that all creative people are a little bit nuts…”
— Dolly Parton

53. “I try to see the good in everybody, and I don’t care who people are as long as they’re themselves, whatever that is.”
— Dolly Parton

54. “There’s a heart beneath the boobs and a brain beneath the wig.”
— Dolly Parton

55. “Smile, it enhances your face value.”
— Dolly Parton

56. “I think so many people live their whole life in fear and doubt and shame.”
— Dolly Parton

57. “I still believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and true love. Don’t even try to tell me different.”
— Dolly Parton

58. “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

59. “We’re all just a bunch of sinners, but we do the best we can.”
— Dolly Parton

60. “I don’t listen to music for fun. I ain’t got enough time for fun! I’m always busy writing my own music. I don’t try to compete or see what other people are doing.”
— Dolly Parton

61. “I always wanted to be loved.”
— Dolly Parton

62. “I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.”
— Dolly Parton

63. “A peacock that rests on his feathers is just another turkey.”
— Dolly Parton

64. “I’m the kind of person who would rather rock in my rocking chair when I’m old and regret a few things that I did than to sit there and regret that I never tried…”
— Dolly Parton

65. “I never, ever get involved in politics. With politics you are not allowed to be honest. I don’t have time to deal with that. I would rather work with kids.”
— Dolly Parton

66. “Hello God, if we are still on speaking terms, can you help me?”
— Dolly Parton

67. “I’m no angel if that’s what you thought you found. I was just the victim of a man that let me down.”
— Dolly Parton

68. “I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.”
— Dolly Parton

69. “People say I look so happy – and I say, ‘That’s the Botox.’”
— Dolly Parton

70. “I just love life. I love people. I love to write, that’s my gift. I love to sing. I have a good attitude. I like to think I shine from the inside.”
— Dolly Parton

71. “God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.”
— Dolly Parton

72. “The secret to a long marriage is to stay gone.”
— Dolly Parton

73. “I never have changed in my taste, and the things that I love, and the way that I act, and all that. I never wanted to change, I just wanted to be successful, and be able to do more things for more people, and for myself as well.”
— Dolly Parton

74. “Above everything else I’ve done, I’ve always said I’ve had more guts than I’ve got talent.”
— Dolly Parton

75. “People just overshoot trying to find God. They’re going outside and trying everything. They don’t realize that it’s right inside themselves.”
— Dolly Parton

76. “If I see something sagging, bagging or dragging I’ll get it nipped, tucked or sucked.”
— Dolly Parton

77. “Being a star just means that you just find your own special place and that you shine where you are. To me that’s what being a star means.”
— Dolly Parton

78. “If I have one more facelift I’ll have a beard!”
— Dolly Parton

79. “When I’m feeling a little low, I put on my favorite high heels to stand a little taller.”
— Dolly Parton

80. “Daddy’s working boots have taken many steps for us.”
— Dolly Parton

81. “I know who I am, I know what I can and can’t do. I know what I will and won’t do. I know what I’m capable of and I don’t agree to do things that I don’t think I can pull off.”
— Dolly Parton

82. “What people do behind closed doors is certainly not my concern unless I’m there with them.”
— Dolly Parton

83. “I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it’s just depressing to me. The poor little kids.”
— Dolly Parton

84. “People think I’m as shallow and superficial as I look, and it’s a surprise when they find out, sure enough, I am.”
— Dolly Parton

85. “Everybody has a purpose.”
— Dolly Parton

86. “I’ll never graduate from collagen.”
— Dolly Parton

87. “When I started the Imagination Library in my hometown, I never dreamed that one day we would be helping Scottish kids.”
— Dolly Parton

88. “Islands in the streams, that is what we are.”
— Dolly Parton

89. “I’ll bring my grits when I travel, because I get so hungry on the road.”
— Dolly Parton

90. “I love to flirt, and I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.”
— Dolly Parton

91. “I just don’t have time to get old!”
— Dolly Parton

92. “If there’s something you know and there’s something you feel, but you can’t quite express it, you will hear it somewhere. And you don’t have to worry, because someone will get it sung out.”
— Dolly Parton

93. “God is in everything I do and all my work glorifies Him.”
— Dolly Parton

94. “When I have sex with my husband, I fantasize I am with a petite, hot young woman.”
— Dolly Parton

95. “I have little feet because nothing grows in the shade.”
— Dolly Parton

96. “I’ll never harden my heart but I’ve toughened the muscles around it.”
— Dolly Parton

97. “I would never stoop so low as to be fashionable.”
— Dolly Parton

98. “I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren’t in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets.”
— Dolly Parton

99. “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

100. “I thank God for my failures. Maybe not at the time but after some reflection. I never feel like a failure just because something I tried has failed.”
— Dolly Parton

101. “If teardrops were pennies and heartaches were gold, I’d have all the treasures my pockets could hold.”
— Dolly Parton

102. “I am not gay, but if I were, I would be the first one running out of the closet.”
— Dolly Parton

103. “Adjusting to the passage of time is a key to success and to life: just being able to roll with the punches.”
— Dolly Parton

104. “I was the first woman to burn my bra – it took the fire department four days to put it out.”
— Dolly Parton

105. “I am a seeker, a poor, sinful creature, there is no weaker than I.”
— Dolly Parton

106. “I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.”
— Dolly Parton

107. “I don’t know what the big deal is about old age. Old people who shine from the inside look 10 to 20 years younger.”
— Dolly Parton

108. “Truth is, I wouldn’t know a gigabyte from a snakebite.”
— Dolly Parton

109. “Having a big gay following, I get hate mail and threats. Some people are blind or ignorant, and you can’t be that prejudiced and hateful and go through this world and still be happy.”
— Dolly Parton

110. “I have tennis shoes with little rhinestones that I slip on if I exercise. But I always wear heels, even around the house. I’m such a short little thing, I can’t reach my kitchen cabinets.”
— Dolly Parton

111. “I love the energy of children. It makes me feel young. I’m just drawn to them. They’re like magic to me. And they’re drawn to me, the childlike part of me that never did grow up.”
— Dolly Parton

112. “Life is a song to me.”
— Dolly Parton

113. “I think that I’m perfect.”
— Dolly Parton

114. “There’s a scripture that says, ‘A merry heart doeth good like medicine.’ I think that’s true, too.”
— Dolly Parton

115. “We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.”
— Dolly Parton

116. “Mama sewed the rags together, sewing every piece with love. She made my coat of many colors that I was proud of.”
— Dolly Parton

117. “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.”
— Dolly Parton

118. “I’m working on my life story. I’m not decided if it’s going to be a musical or a movie with music in it.”
— Dolly Parton

119. “I love Velveeta cheese.”
— Dolly Parton

120. “I have surrounded myself with very smart people.”
— Dolly Parton

121. “They think I’m simpleminded because I seem to be happy. Why shouldn’t I be happy? I have everything I ever wanted and more. Maybe I am simpleminded. Maybe that’s the key: simple.”
— Dolly Parton

122. “I remain totally convinced that if we can do one more simple thing to help kids and adults to learn more, it is to inspire them to read more.”
— Dolly Parton

123. “You can do anything you want to do as long as you keep a good attitude and keep working at it. But the second you give up, you’re screwed.”
— Dolly Parton

124. “My husband says I look like a Q-tip.”
— Dolly Parton

125. “I’ve never been a feminist.”
— Dolly Parton

126. “I listen to my old records and I think, ‘How did I ever get on the radio?’”
— Dolly Parton

127. “I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.”
— Dolly Parton

128. “I was always a junk food person, still am.”
— Dolly Parton

129. “Anyone who knows or cares anything about real country music will agree that George Jones is the voice of it.”
— Dolly Parton

130. “It’s a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I’d be a drag queen.”
— Dolly Parton

131. “My boobs are fake, my hair’s fake but what is real is my voice and my heart.”
— Dolly Parton

132. “I have a strict policy that nobody cries alone in my presence.”
— Dolly Parton

133. “Sometimes my mouth is a little too big and a little too open and sounds too much like a sailor.”
— Dolly Parton

134. “Here you come again, looking better than a body has a right to.”
— Dolly Parton

135. “I hope you’re never happy with anybody but me, and every face you look into, I hope you’re haunted by me. Yes, I’m possessive and jealous, at least I speak honestly.”
— Dolly Parton

136. “I’m trying my best to keep up with all this new technology, and I surround myself with all these wonderful people that are in the know and kind of help me out with all that.”
— Dolly Parton

137. “They let you dream just to watch them shatter, you’re just a step on the boss man’s ladder.”
— Dolly Parton

138. “People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there.”
— Dolly Parton

139. “I don’t make people bend over backwards, and I don’t like that in people. I am definitely no diva.”
— Dolly Parton

140. “I may look fake but I’m real where it counts.”
— Dolly Parton

141. “Energy begets energy.”
— Dolly Parton

142. “I count my blessings far more than I count my money.”
— Dolly Parton

143. “We could afford the price of peace. Love is all it costs.”
— Dolly Parton

144. “The worst thing about poverty is not the actual living of it, but the shame of it.”
— Dolly Parton

145. “You can bet there’s something fishy going on. I guess some large mouth bass left that lipstick on our shirt.”
— Dolly Parton

146. “First thing I do in the morning, after I have my breakfast and do my spiritual work, is put on my makeup and fix my hair, and I can do my makeup in 15 minutes.”
— Dolly Parton

147. “You’re no Elvis Presley, I’m no Marilyn Monroe, but I do think you’re sexy, just thought I’d tell you so.”
— Dolly Parton

148. “Thanks to Botox and fillers, as well as the work that I’ve already had, my face pretty much maintains itself.”
— Dolly Parton

149. “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.”
— Dolly Parton

150. “Understanding isn’t learned from punishment and anger. An iron has no gentle touch, and love ain’t learned from hate.”
— Dolly Parton

151. “I did not, thank the Lord, have to have a hysterectomy.”
— Dolly Parton

152. “All these fine Christian-type people that seem to think they know what God wants for all of us, that’s certainly more of a sin then anything they would claim about us. To judge people is one of the greatest sins.”
— Dolly Parton

153. “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.”
— Dolly Parton

154. “It’s not easy being young. It’s hard to know what to do.”
— Dolly Parton

155. “Kenneth Hari is a true artist and in my opinion a psychic. When he is painting you, he feels your heart and soul.”
— Dolly Parton

156. “I’ve always believed in my talent. And I’ve always had more guts than talent.”
— Dolly Parton

157. “I always love working with children. I never had children of my own. God has his purposes. God didn’t let me have children so everybody’s children could be mine. That’s kind of how I’m looking at it.”
— Dolly Parton

158. “My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I’m old.”
— Dolly Parton

159. “I look like a woman, but I think like a man.”
— Dolly Parton

160. “Speaking of the devil, well here he comes now. Got my defenses down. And I’d go through hell to make him mine.”
— Dolly Parton

161. “Living in America and, of course, just being women in general, we’ve got more strength than we think we do.”
— Dolly Parton

162. “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.”
— Dolly Parton

163. “If I hadn’t been a woman, I’d have been a drag queen.”
— Dolly Parton

164. “I’m old enough and cranky enough now that if someone tried to tell me what to do, I’d tell them where to put it.”
— Dolly Parton

165. “A lot of people have said I’d have probably done better in my career if I hadn’t looked so cheap and gaudy. But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn’t be blamed because you want to look pretty.”
— Dolly Parton

166. “Tell me I have to be somewhere, and I’ll be there 20 minutes early and stay there longer than anybody else. You hold up a lot of people if you’re not on time.”
— Dolly Parton

167. “The tits and the hair and the personality helped build the whole Dolly deal, but it was my music that brought me out of the Smokey Mountains.”
— Dolly Parton

168. “I was not a natural beauty, and I always wanted to be pretty. I just have such an outgoing personality that it’s fitting that I would be overdone.”
— Dolly Parton

169. “After Momma gave birth to twelve of us kids, we put her up on a pedestal. It was mostly to keep Daddy away from her.”
— Dolly Parton

170. “Plastic surgeons are always making mountains out of molehills.”
— Dolly Parton

171. “Being brought up very religious, I have a fear of people that look to idol gods. But we are idols and we’re all gods, so to speak, and I think that celebrities should acknowledge their responsibility, because we are in a position to help.”
— Dolly Parton

172. “It’s almost like being trapped in some other form. The real me is so different from the way I look on the outside.”
— Dolly Parton

173. “God and I have a great relationship but we both see other people.”
— Dolly Parton

174. “I always think of myself as a working girl.”
— Dolly Parton

175. “If I can get my dress on, my weight is under control.”
— Dolly Parton

176. “Sometimes when I’m under pressure, if I think somebody is expecting stuff from me, I’ll do better than if I was just left on my own. I can sit down – I’m a skilled writer, I’ve been doing it all my life – and I can get down to it.”
— Dolly Parton

177. “Our own freewill, to choose the paths we take, no greater deed could ever be done than for another’s sake.”
— Dolly Parton

178. “I never could get my hair to do what I wanted it to do, so I started wearing the wigs. It all came from a very serious place. I wanted to look a certain way.”
— Dolly Parton

179. “Being brought up very religious, I have a fear of people that look to idol gods.”
— Dolly Parton

180. “I’m in showbiz. I look at my boobs like they’re show horses or show dogs. You’ve got to keep them groomed.”
— Dolly Parton

181. “There’s no such thing as free love. Have you seen the price of Viagra?”
— Dolly Parton

182. “I’m almost like three people. There’s me the, Dolly, the person. There’s me, the star. And then there’s me, the manager.”
— Dolly Parton

183. “Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.”
— Dolly Parton

184. “I like to think I’ve been a good example and an inspiration to some people. And some people say that about me, but I’m just going about my work and doing what I do best. I’m a very professional ‘Me.’”
— Dolly Parton

185. “I wanted to write a book that talked about the emotions of children, which is the rainbow. We all have moods. We talk about being blue when we’re sad, and being yellow when we’re cowards, and when we’re mad, we’re red.”
— Dolly Parton

186. “Home is anywhere I hang my hair.”
— Dolly Parton

187. “Stop this attitude that older people ain’t any good anymore! We’re as good as we ever were – if we ever were any good.”
— Dolly Parton

188. “I don’t like to get involved in things that I am not familiar with. I’m kind of a hands-on type of person.”
— Dolly Parton

189. “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

190. “I know it’s corny – but I love ‘Jingle Bells!’”
— Dolly Parton

191. “A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.”
— Dolly Parton

192. “I wouldn’t wanna go out not looking like the Dolly people have come to know, because I’ve come to know her that way, too.”
— Dolly Parton

193. “I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.”
— Dolly Parton

194. “I don’t want to throw rice. I want to throw rocks.”
— Dolly Parton

195. “Those people who wake up and they’re just beautiful, they’re just born that way. Well that ain’t me. I gotta work for everything I’ve got.”
— Dolly Parton

196. “You don’t even have to believe in anything to be good to people. You should just know you should be a good human being.”
— Dolly Parton

197. “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.”
— Dolly Parton

198. “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.”
— Dolly Parton

199. “Sometimes I like to run naked in the moonlight and the wind, on a little trail behind our house, when the honeysuckle blooms. It’s a feeling of freedom, so close to God and nature.”
— Dolly Parton

200. “Being born was the worse and the first mistake I ever made. The doctor didn’t spank me, he just slapped me in the face.”
— Dolly Parton