Johnny Cash Quotes

“There's a lot of things blamed on me that never happened. But then, there's a lot of things that I did that I never got caught at.”

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

“All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love.”

“it's good to know who hates you and it is good to be hated by the right people”

“There's unconditional love there. You hear that phrase a lot but it's real with me and her [June Carter]. She loves me in spite of everything, in spite of myself. She has saved my life more than once. She's always been there with her love, and it has certainly made me forget the pain for a long time, many times. When it gets dark and everybody's gone home and the lights are turned off, it's just me and her.”

“They're powerful, those songs. At times they've been my only way back, the only door out of the dark, bad places the black dog calls home.”

“Beneath the stains of time the feeling disappears, you are someone else I am still right here.”

“I keep a close watch on this heart of mine;
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds.
Because you're mine, I walk the line.”

“I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.”

“I hear the train a comin,
It's rollin' round the bend.
An' I ain't seen the sunshine'
Since I don't know when.
I'm stuck in Folsom prison,
And time keeps draggin' on.
But that train keeps a rollin'
On down to San Antone.”

“I love the freedoms we got in this country, I appreciate your freedom to burn your flag if you want to, but I really appreciate my right to bear arms so I can shoot you if you try to burn mine.”

“I think it speaks to our basic fundamental feelings, you know. Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does.”

“The beast in me
Is caged by frail and fragile bars.”

“This morning, with her, having coffee”

“I took the easy way, and to an extent I regret that. Still, though, the way we did it was honest. We played it and sang it the way we felt it, and there's a lot to be said for that.”

“Listen to the words long written down,
When the man comes around.”

“My arms are too short to box with God.”

“There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.”

“I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”

“You're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good.”

“Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.”

“I'm not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I'm thrilled to death with life.”

“Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkly clothes, and cowboy boots. I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I've worn black clothes ever since.”

“There's always rhythm going in my mind. … I'm either singing them — June will tell you, I'm either singing them, or I have got the beat going from one, or I'm writing one.”

“You can ask the people around me. I don't give up. I don't give up… and it's not out of frustration and desperation that I say I don't give up. I don't give up because I don't give up. I don't believe in it.”

“When, I was just a baby,
My mama told me, son
Always be a good boy,
Don't ever play with guns.
But I shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die.
When I hear that whistle blowin'
I hang my head and cry.”

“Cash: I went into a coma and I was there for 12 days. They all thought I was dying and they couldn't diagnose what was wrong with me. They finally came up with a diagnosis of Shy-Drager syndrome. It was few months later they realized I didn't have that so it was Parkinson's. And then it was not that. Then finally it was autonomic neuropathy. … And I'm pretty well resolved to the fact that that's what it is. And it's a slow process of the nerve endings.
King: No cure?
Cash: No, I don't think so. But that's all right. There's no cure for life either.”

“Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin'.
Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.
Voices callin', voices cryin'.
Some are born an' some are dyin.”

“Hey, get rhythm when you get the blues.
Hey, get rhythm when you get the blues.
Yes a jumpy rhythm makes you feel so fine.
It'll shake all the trouble from your worried mind.
Get rhythm when you get the blues.”

“At my door the leaves are falling;
A cold wild wind has come.
Sweethearts walk by together;
And I still miss someone.”

“I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there is nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.”

“Hey porter! Hey porter!
Would you tell me the time?
How much longer will it be till we cross that Mason Dixon Line?
At daylight would ya tell that engineer to slow it down?
Or better still, just stop the train,
Cause I wanna look around.”

“People say, Well, he wore that body out. Well, maybe I did. But it was to a good purpose. They should be thankful that I wore it out to the purpose I wore it out and that was writing and recording and touring and doing concerts. Everywhere I could possibly do them that I thought I might enjoy them. I thought people might enjoy me.”

“Now I taught the weeping willow how to cry,
And I showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky.
And the tears that I cried for that woman are gonna flood you Big River.
Then I'm gonna sit right here until I die.”

“There's a man goin' 'round takin' names.
An' he decides who to free and who to blame.
Everybody won't be treated all the same.
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down.
When the man comes around.”

“The line "because you're mine, I walk the line." It kept coming to me, you know? But I was — I was … young and not been married too long. Yes, it kept coming to me. Because you're mine, I walk the line. And then the words just naturally flowed. It was an easy song to write.”

“The Man Comes Around" is a song that I wrote, it's my song of the apocalypse, and I got the idea from a dream that I had — I dreamed I saw Queen Elizabeth. I dreamed I went in to Buckingham Palace, and there she sat on the floor. And she looked up at me and said, "Johnny Cash, you're like a thorn tree in a whirlwind." And I woke up, of course, and I thought, what could a dream like this mean? Thorn tree in a whirlwind? Well, I forgot about it for two or three years, but it kept haunting me, this dream. I kept thinking about it, how vivid it was, and then I thought, Maybe it's biblical. So I found it. Something about whirlwinds and thorn trees in the Bible. So from that, my song started and… "The Man Comes Around.”

“I do my best to hide this low-down feelin'.
I try to make believe there's nothing wrong.
But they're always askin me about you, darlin
And it hurts me so to tell 'em that you're gone.
If they ask me I guess I'd be denyin' that I've been unhappy all alone.
But if they heard my heart, they'd hear it cryin'
Where's my darling, when's she comin home?”

“Just around the corner there's heartache
Down the street that losers use.
If you can wade in through the teardrops,
You'll find me at the Home of the Blues.”

“A young cowboy named Billy Joe grew restless on the farm;
A boy filled with wanderlust who really meant no harm.
He changed his clothes and shined his boots;
And combed his dark hair down.
And his mother cried as he walked out.Don't take your guns to town son;
Leave your guns at home Bill.
Don't take your guns to town.”

“I lie awake at night to wait 'til you come in.
You stay a little while and then you're gone again.
Every question that I ask, I get a lie, lie, lie.
For every lie you tell, you're gonna cry, cry, cry!”

“The hairs on your arm will stand up.
At the terror in each sip and in each sup.
Will you partake of that last offered cup,
Or disappear into the potter's ground.
When the man comes around.”

“So we raise her up every morning
And we bring her down slow every night,
We don't let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right.
On second thought
I do like to brag.
Cause I'm mighty proud of
That Ragged Old Flag.”

“Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money. ”

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone.”

“The line "because you're mine, I walk the line."”