Richard Petty

Cotton Owens was leading and daddy was second. They came up on me and I moved over to let them pass. Cotton went on, but daddy bumped me in the rear and my car went right into the wall.

I quit driving, I’m not retired.

A lot of them also looked a little further down the line in the future than we did. We always did everything out of Level Cross (N.C.) in the backyard and we were fairly successful with the thing. Then it started being a bigger and bigger business. It started going and bringing more people in, more money, more technology, that kind of stuff. We still sat there in the backyard. By the time we got ready to do something about it, we were so far behind on our money and our engineering and all that stuff it’s just taken us a little time to get going.

At least when the race starts, he’ll know where they’re all at because they’ll all be in front of him.

There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles. It was the day they built the second automobile.

No one wants to quit when he’s losing and no one wants to quit when he’s winning.

You know, people can’t fall in love with me just because I’m good at what I do.

What cha saying boy, you think Im playing boy, watch ya mouth girl, its a mans world.

In Los Angeles, they don’t want you to fail, they want you to die.

I think I’m prone to panic.

There’s nothing worse than a bunch of jaded old farts, and that’s a fact.

Music means communication to me. I say ‘listen you people out there, listen to my music, let’s be one.’ Music is a friend to me when I am lonely, when I am blue. You can’t define music ’cause music is cosmos and it knows no barrier or definition. You have to feel music to dig it

I personally really like getting a proper album with artwork and everything.

I have talked to Debbie Hammond quite a bit, Jim Hammond’s wife, his widow. I’ve seen their kids. And last time we played Dallas, a lot of them came over. It’s hard for them to come see the show. It’s still hard.

There are always generic terms like ‘Americana’, but there are no boundaries as to where it can go.

I call it fan fatigue. I went to see Bob Dylan last year, who I think is absolutely incredible, but he suffers from his audience.

We are following other people’s opinions. We are controlled by the media. And today it all changes.

So it’s an aging product that’s decreasing in popularity and yet somehow it just can’t stop making money. It’s basically the agricultural equivalent of U2.

The only reward for anything is food.

Someone stole my shoelaces once from my shoes. I still wear them and never put laces in them – they’re like my trademark shoes now!

I’ve got this brilliant thing where I go, “I’m Robbie Williams”, and people are interested in what I want to say – which is amazing because I’m just an idiot from Stoke-on-Trent.