Dolly Parton had a way with words, whether in her witty lyricism or in the tidbits of wisdom she dropped in interviews. When the late country icon sat down for our 2023 cover story Rockstar Forever: Dolly Parton in Conversation with Paramore’s Hayley Williams, she proved true to her reputation. Speaking candidly with Williams about her career, philanthropy, politics, and worldly ethos, Parton shared insights into life in ways that only she could.
In honor of her passing, we’ve collected the 10 best quotes from this once-in-a-lifetime conversation. Revisit the full cover story for more depth and detail.
On Being True to Yourself
“My mama told me that when I was young and starting out on my own. She said, ‘Just be true to you.’ And that statement says a lot more than just the words. I said in a book I wrote one time, ‘Find out who you are and do it on purpose.’ That’s what that’s about; be as true to that as you can. We all fail, we all fall. Nobody’s perfect.”
“Like they say, there’s never an excuse to be rude, but sometimes there’s a reason. I’m 77 now and I’ve been in this business for 60-plus years. I’ve seen a lot, been through a lot, but I’ve still maintained. I’ve just tried to be myself. I was me, and me had to be what I drew from.”
On Meeting Conflict with Love
“In my own self, I just try to love people. I try to find the God light in everybody, and I try to let mine shine extra hard when I run up against that. But I have to be careful what I say. You know, whether it’s good or bad or indifferent, I’m a pretty honest, open person. I can tell you where to put it if I don’t like where you got it. That’s when I say I often use my temper, but I seldom lose it.”
“There is a God piece in all of us, and I try to find that in everybody – even the worst people, there’s something good in there. Maybe they didn’t get a chance to be it. I understand that people that hate so much usually are the people that have never been loved enough.”
On Politics
“I think [‘World on Fire’ is] one of the most powerful things on the record. Everybody said, ‘Dolly’s getting political,’ because I said, ‘Don’t get me started on politics. How are we to live in a world like this? Greedy politicians, present and past, wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ’em in their’ astronomical egos, so to speak. But I could have just said, ‘Leaders of the world, present and past, you better make a change and you better do it fast.’ That’s what I was trying to say. We got to really get together or we’re just gonna just go to hell or heaven in a handbasket.”
“I’m not political; as I said before, I don’t like controversy. I try to just speak my heart, speak my truth, speak my mind, and do it as gentle as I can. But well, my best weapon and my best tool is my writing.”
On Her Philanthropy
“I try to leave my heart open, and my ears and my eyes. My little Imagination Library, that came from a real place. That came from my own daddy, who couldn’t read and write. I wanted to get daddy involved in something, just in our hometown. And then it grew and grew and became a wonderful thing, and my daddy got to live long enough to see it. I can get out and work endlessly on that charity that I love because it’s personal to me.”
On funding the Medorna COVID-19 vaccine: “… At that time, see, I thought we could all be dead with a black plague. Nobody knew what was going on… So my heart said, ‘You need to do something.’ So I thought, ‘What’s the best thing for me to do? Let’s try to find a vaccine or a cure for it.’ Of course, I’m not trying to tell people to do it now, but you know, millions of people were spared. But of course, thousands had some reaction to it, so I’m not… But even knowing that, I’m still proud of what I did because my heart led me to do it.”
On Acceptance
“Well, there’s a whole lot of reasons for me being the way that I am. First of all, I grew up in a family of 12 kids. I got six brothers and I got my five sisters. So, I’ve had every personality around me. And I’ve often said I’ve got some of everybody in my own immediate family, and in my family of employees. I’ve got gays, I’ve got lesbians, I’ve got trans, I’ve got alcoholics, I’ve got drug addicts. I’ve got some of everybody in my own family, so I naturally love them, accept them.”
On Courage
“That’s the thing that cripples most people in this business or in life: It’s fear.”
