I'd been round the world a hundred times and had started to forget where I'd been. I knew I'd been there: it said it on the tour map. I could remember the name of the city but I couldn't remember what it was like - it was a massive blur.

Any attempts at autobiography before the age of eighty seem pretty self-involved to me. There are a lot of smart middle aged people but not many wise ones.

Life is a journey that's measured not in miles or years but in experiences, and the route your life takes is built not of roads but of songs.

Of course I'm going to say 'I'm a thug,' that's because I came from the gutter and I'm still here!

I had a song called "Folsom Prison Blues" that was a hit just before "I Walk The Line." And the people in Texas heard about it at the state prison and got to writing me letters asking me to come down there. So I responded and then the warden called me and asked if I would come down and do a show for the prisoners in Texas.

When I was 17 - 16, my father and I cut wood all day long and I was swinging that crosscut saw and hauling wood.