Emmylou Harris

I'm even able to have kind of a little bit of a second career in dog rescue. Doesn't pay anything, but it's become a real passion for me.

You get to a certain point in your life where you get closer to the end of your life than the beginning, and it colors your life, in a way.

Somehow, when you think about yourself in old age, you think you're going to be this completely different person that you don't even recognize - because you can't imagine it, you know?

You meet a lot of people and have a lot of experiences, and they color you and stay with you - but I'm not the grieving widow. Life is much more complicated and interesting and full of zigs and zags than that.

I really have shaken hands with where my voice is right now. I think it's got a little deeper; it's got some more grooves in it.

I have to have a guitar sitting around. I sing in the shower. I sing around the house. The music comes secondary. The lyrics come first.

Well, I've always been eclectic.

You know, I'm a fan of Laurie Anderson. One of my favorite records is 'The Ugly One With the Jewels,' a spoken-word record. It's an extraordinary album.

I was a folk singer who became totally over the edge with country music. I found my voice and style working with Gram Parsons. I learned how to listen to George Jones records and the Louvin Brothers.

Well, I'm just very blessed that I still love my work and I can still work, I still have an audience and I love what I do.

I'm not a trained musician. When folks talk about 'Well, you go to this or that' - the tenor, or the third part - I don't really know what they're talking about.

My parents were not very happy. They were very worried about me pursuing a career that even if I had talent might not give me the happiness and the success that they - any parent hopes for their child.

In 1974 I was trying to get my first little band together. That year marked kind of a traumatic point in my life, but I had a lot of support from friends and family and a lot of good things ended up coming out of it.

Yes, I always say that we're a National League band. What I mean is, if you play an instrument, you have to sing. So I always call our drummer up. Even the drummer has to take a turn on the microphone.

I love Chicago, but I didn't think I had enough soul to be a Cubs fan.

I'm blessed to be able to work at something that I'm good at, and that I love. It's not something I take for granted.

If I'm crazy, I'm blissfully so!

I didn't have any money. I had a sense of terrible loss. But what I also had was a fire in my belly. I wasn't going to go back to waiting tables. I felt I had to be better at fronting a band.

I have my own biography of Gram Parsons - I don't want to be part of somebody else's.

I find with records, they become what they're going to become. They take on a power and a direction of their own. Part of making records is to honor that and not try to force it.

I think musicians are always very generous in promoting anything good they hear. It's just kind of in our nature.

You really do learn every day with every dog; they are all so unique and different. But if you're patient and you understand where they're coming from, and if you are consistent, they will be fine. They teach you to give your full attention.

Bluegrass has a very, very strict musical form. Once you start to dilute it, it disappears.

Every life is precious.

I think I can be pretty focused, but as I say, it was more wanting to be the good student, seeing myself as a good student, and also, my parents had expectations. They wouldn't have cared if I got a B or a C or even a D.