20 Kris Kristofferson Quotes To Tip Your Hat To

Kristoffer Kristofferson, a legendary American country music singer, songwriter, and actor was born on June 22, 1936, and passed away on September, 28, 2024. Kristofferson was one of a select crew that truly led the charge for the outlaw country movement that transpired during the 1970s. It was during the 1970s that Kristofferson would also go on to undertake what was an impressive career as a Hollywood actor. Kristofferson was formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004, and then would receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. He was also a three-time Grammy Award winner. We’ll take a look at some of the most memorable quotes that Kristofferson left us with.

1. On losing things with aging

“They say the first thing to go is your legs, then it’s your reflexes, then it’s your friends.”

2. On fully committing

“If you can’t get out of something, get into it.”

3. On turning 30

“I turned 30 as a janitor. I was thinking at the time that Hank Williams died when he was 29. All my peers were at least 10 years younger than I was. I felt like an old has-been at the time.”

4. On facial scars

“I got scars on my face that tell some kind of story. I’m looking in the mirror, and I got one scar that’s really two scars – half from a baseball bat and half from playing football in college. I’ll tell you, though, after a while, your face gets so wrinkled up you can hardly see them.”

5. On Johnny Cash

“Johnny Cash has always been larger than life.”

6. On Nashville back in the day

“The great thing about Nashville back in the day was that the old guys hung out where the young guys were. The established writers like Harlan Howard and Jack Clement gave us encouragement and passed the guitar, you know? Chet Atkins let me sit in on his sessions. Everybody was good to us, and everybody loved the music.”

7. On maintaining creativity

“I hope that I’ll keep being creative until they throw dirt on me.”

8. On never giving up

“Never give up, which is the lesson I learned from boxing. As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one doesn’t cancel out the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.”

9. On regretting nothing

“I have no regrets. I feel very grateful for the life that I had – you know, family I live with; and I’ve been doing work that I love, ever since I came to Nashville.”

10. On the writing process

“I always had to wait until something hit me, and I could write it. But when I would cut an album, to me it represented the time that I spent since the last one. Just the way I was looking at the world.”

11. On the Idol shows

“Those Idol shows are kind of scary to me. They wanted me to be on one of those panels one time, and I said it’s the last thing in the world I’d ever want to do. I would hate to have to discourage somebody.”

12. On looking back on one’s life

“I enjoy looking back on my life. I’m thinking seriously about starting to write about it.”

13. On hitting rock bottom

“I was working the Gulf of Mexico on oil rigs, flying helicopters. I’d lost my family to my years of failing as a songwriter. All I had were bills, child support, and grief. And I was about to get fired for not letting 24 hours go between the throttle and the bottle. It looked like I’d trashed my act. But there was something liberating about it.”

14. On controlling one’s life

“I really have no anxiety about controlling my own life.”

15. On interpreting one’s own work

“I can interpret my own work honestly. And performing by myself seems to focus the attention in the right places.”

16. On passing down wisdom

“I’ve been trying to think of things to tell my kids, something that I could pass down, and it’s like, gee whiz, I maybe never learned anything that didn’t contradict itself.”

17. On Bob Dylan

“That’s who I wanted to be like was Bob Dylan.”

18. On daily gratitude

“I am grateful every morning I wake up. I’ve a big family full of kids, who laugh all the time and love each other.”

19. On being mindful of the ego

“I don’t think I’m that good a singer. I can’t think of a song that I’ve written that I don’t like the way somebody else sings it better.”

20. On the happiness of home

“What really makes me happy now is my home. I know that I have that to lose. But I don’t see losing it. And I don’t care if I never do another movie. And I don’t care if I never get back on the road. I like to think that I’m gonna do that. But if I don’t, I can live with that.”