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Sinclair Lewis was asked one time to give a talk to class of students about writing. When he got there he asked the class, Do you people want to be writers?and they all said yes. Then Lewis said, Why the hell aren't you at home writing?

Tom T. Hall

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Tom T. Hall
Age: 85 †
Born: 1936
Born: May 25
Died: 2021
Died: August 20
Author
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Writer
Olive Hill
Kentucky
Thomas Hall
Give
Lewis
Home
Writers
Giving
Aren
Writing
Asked
Time
Students
People
Hell
Class
Talk
Sinclair

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I've been polite and I've always shown up. Somebody asked me if I had any advice for young people entering the business. I said: Yeah, show up.
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The enticing allure of Nashville is that there is always something new coming down the pike. Put this record on and you’ll hear footsteps.
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I have had hundreds of people work for me over the years, and I don't think I ever fired anybody.
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The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.
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I never hid out. I was never big enough a star.
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I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups, bourbon in a glass, and grass.
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Songwriting is as much a craft as a talent.
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I never fixed a story. I didn't make judgments, I let the listener make judgments. When I got to the end of the story, if it had a moral, I let the listener find it.
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Old dogs care about you, even when you make mistakes.
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I was well traveled, and I created this illusion of literacy through reading and writing. I wrote a book of short stories.
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My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.
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If Barbara Walters was interviewing me, I'd figure her career was as dead as mine!
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The first time with artistic endeavors is, if it's working, it was your idea, and if it's not, it's somebody else's idea.
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I had the notion that I wanted to write the great dirty American novel, so I went to Roanoke College on the GI Bill.
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I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.
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If they want to come out and watch me paint or dig potatoes or mend fences, I don't care. I don't do interviews not because I have anything to hide, but when you retire, the word has a meaning to me. It's a place in life, a part of the journey. You just don't quit work. You develop an attitude where you can do what you please.
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Young kids are doing the same thing I did, but they're doing it differently. They don't do brain surgery the way they used to do it either.
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After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.
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Is this really Butte, Montana, or just existential blues?
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She gave her heart to Jethro and her body to the whole wide world.
Tom T. Hall