Top 40 Lyle Lovett Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Barbecue sauce is like a beautiful woman. If it’s too sweet, it’s bound to be hiding something.”

— Lyle Lovett

2. “Kemo Sabe, kiss my ass.”

— Lyle Lovett

3. “She was ugly from the front, and I said ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly. Well, I could handle it behind her.”

— Lyle Lovett

4. “If it’s not too late, make it a cheese-burger.”

— Lyle Lovett

5. “Home is where my horse is.”

— Lyle Lovett

6. “I’ve never been ready to do a single thing I’ve ever done in my life. I haven’t been prepared enough, haven’t studied enough, haven’t known enough. You can never be ready. There’s just so much to know.”

— Lyle Lovett

7. “My favorite Aggie joke? I’m sorry I don’t understand the question.”

— Lyle Lovett

8. “That’s right, you’re not from Texas. But Texas wants you anyways.”

— Lyle Lovett

9. “I joke that I’ve never been burdened by having an actual hit. There’s something to that. My records have sold enough to make the record company money to help me keep my job. But I’ve never had anything so firmly ingrained in the mind of the public that I’m expected to repeat it.”

— Lyle Lovett

10. “I don’t feel like I’m on a mission. I’m trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to.”

— Lyle Lovett

11. “You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common.”

— Lyle Lovett

12. “When you have a solid upbringing and a strong sense of place, that sustains you. My sense of home never leaves me.”

— Lyle Lovett

13. “The loss of Jerry Garcia feels like the end of an era in the same way it felt when Elvis died and John Lennon was killed.”

— Lyle Lovett

14. “Man, I need to impress her, cause I’d like to undress her.”

— Lyle Lovett

15. “I’m a very lucky man. I get to do the thing I want most in life, write songs and sing them for people, and ride bikes. I love my family. I love my home. I get to work with people I’ve admired my whole life. It’s a pretty good life.”

— Lyle Lovett

16. “Both my parents worked, so I was home alone a lot, and I would listen to their records. They belonged to the Columbia House record club, so they had records!”

— Lyle Lovett

17. “I married her just because she looks like you.”

— Lyle Lovett

18. “Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.”

— Lyle Lovett

19. “Look around and you will see this world is full of creeps like me.”

— Lyle Lovett

20. “I don’t know what it is about the shower that generates creative thoughts. Maybe it’s the hot water. Maybe it’s being unencumbered even by the restriction of clothing.”

— Lyle Lovett

21. “If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem and you’re screwed.”

— Lyle Lovett

22. “It’s true that I did get the girl, but then my grandfather always said, Even a blind chicken finds a few grains of corn now and then.”

— Lyle Lovett

23. “What would we do if we didn’t try? We have to try.”

— Lyle Lovett

24. “Who keeps on loving you when you’ve been lying, saying things that ain’t what they seem? God does, but I don’t. God will, but I won’t.”

— Lyle Lovett

25. “There’s no bad luck, There’s just the luck you’ve found.”

— Lyle Lovett

26. “Denice Franke is a sensitive and compelling singer and songwriter.”

— Lyle Lovett

27. “Everybody’s career is different. In this new age of being able to talk to the whole world at once, the possibilities are staggering, really, to be able to do things yourself. But I’ve always enjoyed my relationship with the record company.”

— Lyle Lovett

28. “I’m not the kind of writer that can wake up and say, “Okay, I’m gonna write a song today,” and have that song be the kind I would want to record. The songs of mine that I end up liking are songs that come from real experience. They’re like chapter titles in my life.”

— Lyle Lovett

29. “Horses teach you patience and how to do things the right way so you can get the right result.”

— Lyle Lovett

30. “I like my audience. I always feel when up on stage performing that I could enjoy having a cup of coffee with any one of them.”

— Lyle Lovett

31. “I enjoyed hearing people do their own songs. I became attracted to singer-songwriters. I became interested in them as people; was curious about what they wanted to say.”

— Lyle Lovett

32. “I’m really just trying to do things that I enjoy. I’m trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to. I just have to think if I like those different kinds of music, there are other people who aren’t so different from me.”

— Lyle Lovett

33. “I am limited by what I can think of to do-my choices are not so great.”

— Lyle Lovett

34. “I’ve been lucky to be able to make the records I’ve wanted to make. The record company has never pressured me to cut certain songs.”

— Lyle Lovett

35. “Fortunately, I’ve never had a job.”

— Lyle Lovett

36. “When someone tells me what he or she was doing the first time they heard a song of mine, then I’ve done a good job. If my song becomes about your life, then I’m successful.”

— Lyle Lovett

37. “I’ve always thought that writing isn’t really that hard. It’s having a good idea that’s hard.”

— Lyle Lovett

38. “You have to be really good to get away with smashing a guitar.”

— Lyle Lovett

39. “I played guitar when I was young and never really considered it as a way to make a living.”

— Lyle Lovett

40. “I don’t ever try to anticipate my audience. I just write the songs I want to write, and hope people like ’em.”

— Lyle Lovett

41. “Every afternoon, I was in the pasture with cattle or fishing and shooting my BB gun. That kind of freedom allows imagination to develop.”

— Lyle Lovett

42. “I’m really in no danger of being perceived as a famous movie actor!”

— Lyle Lovett

43. “Singing your own songs is all about individual expression.”

— Lyle Lovett

44. “It’s important to be successful enough to be able to keep doing what you love.”

— Lyle Lovett

45. “Beyond hoping that someone will like one of my songs, I don’t think about how a song will be received. I just hope that, when somebody hears one of my songs, they’ll want to hear it again.”

— Lyle Lovett

46. “It’s difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost.”

— Lyle Lovett

47. “You can’t second-guess your audience. You can only do what you think is right. If you do that, your audience will appreciate you.”

— Lyle Lovett

48. “The most important thing you can do as a performer is to be yourself, or be an onstage version of yourself. If youre not being true to yourself, and somebody likes that other version of you, youre kind of stuck.”

— Lyle Lovett

49. “It’s really a lot easier to write about things that are problematic. Who wants to hear how happy you are?”

— Lyle Lovett