«There's the chart -- and there's the heart. And it's great when they both line up. But you better follow your heart, 'cause that's where it's at.»

«Where better than the church for people like me, George Jones and Johnny Cash to go to get ourselves in shape enough to sing a gospel song?»

«I feel like I've been pardoned, and I have a playpen all my own now,»

«Will you do it? Will you marry the Grand Ole Opry?»

«Nothing will prepare you for singing the truth like about 35 years in the music business, financial troubles and a couple trips to jail, ... It will get you really humble and really truthful, and gets you ready to sing out about who and what saved you.»

«It's always been a problem for secular artists,»

«Move Along Train.»

«The Greatest Love of All Time (Reprise),»

«When I did suit back up and put the Superlatives together, I had a lot of trouble in my mind following ( The Pilgrim ). I was doing a session one day with Cash, and I said, 'You've made lots of brilliantly deep records that weren't on anybody's radar except yours. I'm having a tough time following this Pilgrim thing.' He said, 'The only thing I can tell you is that your next record has to come out of your heart like that one did, or it's just a wasted work. Once you make a record like that, you can't go back and live with yourself.' And he was right.»

«I call this my church house trilogy. Souls' Chapel really was music from the Mississippi Delta, which to me is a church within itself. The Delta is the church of American Roots music. The Badlands is a cathedral without a top on it. And the Ryman has been called the Mother Church of Country Music, but to me it's the Mother Church of American Music. If you can think it up, it's been done there. In my mind, this is kind of a spiritual odyssey as much as anything else, and I had the settings of three churches to make it in.»