Top 140 Willie Nelson Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “I don’t believe in adhering to any rules I don’t support and I didn’t vote for. To hell with what people think. Just be who you are and you’ll be happy.”

— Willie Nelson

102. “You don’t have to be poor to need something or somebody.”

— Willie Nelson

103. “I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad.”

— Willie Nelson

104. “I was influenced a lot by those around me – there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields.”

— Willie Nelson

105. “A lot of guns there’s no need for civilians to own those those are for military.”

— Willie Nelson

106. “Sometimes there is a 36-piece orchestra going off in my stomach.”

— Willie Nelson

107. “There are just certain sounds, music, that sort of you know people are going to like it.”

— Willie Nelson

108. “I like to play small clubs.”

— Willie Nelson

109. “Inside every cowboy there’s a lady who’d love to slip out.”

— Willie Nelson

110. “I think I’m basically the same guy I always was. Maybe I’ve learned, through experience, to rein in some of the anger and temper they say redheads normally have.”

— Willie Nelson

111. “The first time I got onstage was when I was about 5 years old. It was at a church social, and I had a poem to recite.”

— Willie Nelson

112. “If a song was ever good, it’s still good.”

— Willie Nelson

113. “I think the best exercise that I do is singing for an hour-and-a-half out on the stage, because, yes, I use the lung, the biggest muscle in your body.”

— Willie Nelson

114. “Like anything else, you can use the Internet for good or ill. You can get out of it what you want to. There’s no evil about it. The way I see it, it’s a liberation.”

— Willie Nelson

115. “Writing books is fun because after I do a show for a couple hours, I’m in a bus for 22 hours. It’s not hard for me to look out the window and tell a joke here and there.”

— Willie Nelson

116. “There is no such thing as a normal person. There is just you and me.” – Willie Nelson.”

— Willie Nelson

117. “If you start out looking at somebody, wondering whether he’s good or bad, I think you’re starting out in the wrong direction. I think we’re all good and we’re all bad.”

— Willie Nelson

118. “When I was out in the bars drinking and fighting I was a little bit less of a peacemaker than I would be if I’d had a coupla hits of a joint and gone and laid down somewhere.”

— Willie Nelson

119. “I fly a star ship across the universe divide and when I reach the other side; I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps, I may become a highwayman again or I may simply be a single drop of rain but I will remain and I’ll be back again and again and again and again and again and again.”

— Willie Nelson

120. “Those people out there like good music. They don’t stop and ask themselves, ‘Is it country or rock and roll?’ If they like it, they will tell you.”

— Willie Nelson

121. “Every now and then I’ll think of something to put back in the show. I just kind of play it off the top of my head. If I do it that way it keeps it kinda fresh.”

— Willie Nelson

122. “And as far as guitars go, I loved Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West’s stuff.”

— Willie Nelson

123. “When I’m driving the highway by myself is when I write best.”

— Willie Nelson

124. “I believe in looseness.”

— Willie Nelson

125. “I don’t think any person has any special knowledge about what God has planned for me and you any more than me and you do.”

— Willie Nelson

126. “There are only so many notes so there must be only so many melodies.”

— Willie Nelson

127. “I don’t remember Moses writing, ‘Thou shalt not kill... unless you think you have a good reason.”

— Willie Nelson

128. “You know inside whether it’s right. But you still have to choose to do it.”

— Willie Nelson

129. “Let’s get the government stay out of our private lives, once and for all, and stop arresting smokers. Let’s take a stand for personal freedom.”

— Willie Nelson

130. “I use vaporizers a lot. It cuts down on the heat and the smoke. And for a singer that’s not a bad idea.”

— Willie Nelson

131. “It’s easy to be overwhelmed by our desires for material things, but the fact is, most of us know what we truly value. Sometimes we just need a little reminder.”

— Willie Nelson

132. “But if you think of all the people who don’t like me, just think of all the millions who’ve never heard of me!”

— Willie Nelson

133. “Cause one way or the other,” I said, rolling a fat one, “it’s all gonna work out.” “And what makes you so goddamn sure?” I took a hit and held it in. When I exhaled, I said, slowly but deliberately, “It’s a matter of faith, Waylon. And I got enough faith to last me this lifetime and whatever lifetimes come next.”

— Willie Nelson

134. “I was in the Air Force a while and they had what they call “policing the area.” That’s where you looked around and if there’s anything wrong here, there, anywhere, you took care of your own area. And I think that’s a pretty good thing to go by. If everyone just takes care of their own area then we won’t have any problems. Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there. And look around you and see what needs to be changed.”

— Willie Nelson

135. “I am the only person who can set me free from what might have been.”

— Willie Nelson

136. “I still probably smoke as much as I ever did!”

— Willie Nelson

137. “So if I’m not normal and you’re not normal and they’re not normal – why in the blue blazes do we all spend so much time pretending we are?”

— Willie Nelson

138. “Get in there. Sing the song. Get out. I’m not big on a hundred takes and a thousand overdubs. My kind of singing isn’t meant to be perfect. It’s meant to reflect the imperfections of a human being like me. After a couple of takes, that reflection is pretty accurate.”

— Willie Nelson

139. “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.” I sang it nice and slow.”

— Willie Nelson

140. “Next to his pecker, a picker’s fingers are his most precious body parts.”

— Willie Nelson

141. “I didn’t come here and I ain’t leavin’.”

— Willie Nelson