Even the hard times are part of your life story. If you acknowledge them and move past them, they eventually add up to the experience that makes you wise.

Wherever you are in your journey, I hope you, too, will keep encountering challenges. It is a blessing to be able to survive them, to be able to keep putting one foot in front of the other-to be in a position to make the climb up life's mountain, knowing that the summit still lies ahead. And every experience is a valuable teacher.

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.

Whatever you see you gotta keep a sense of humor; you gotta be able to smile through all the bullshit.

I'm not a gangsta rapper. I rap about things that happen to me. I got shot five times. People was trying to kill me.

It seems like every time you come up something happens to bring you back down.