Richard Petty

We drove for the sheer fun of driving because there wasn’t that much money to be made.

There’s probably not a crew chief out there who hasn’t tried something that seemed like a good idea.

When I first started racing, my father said, “Win the race as slow as you can.

The good Lord doesn’t tell you what His plan is, so all you can do is get up in the morning and see what happens next.

Never put a question mark where God puts a Period.

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

I think London’s sexy because it’s so full of eccentrics.

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.

What I recall for the first two years is my daughter not really knowing who I was and getting rather agitated when I came back off tour, as she thought I’d come to rob the house.

The blues was bleeding the same blood as me.

Anything that we think is incredible and beautiful and wonderful, we ascribe to something that we don’t know what it is.

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.

I don’t want to go to another rollercoaster ride of a movie. If I want that, I’ll go to Magic Mountain. I’m really interested in the young directors that are doing different things in cinema. I think the movies people will hold onto are the Rushmore (1998)s and the Being John Malkovich (1999)s. Those are the kind of films I want to do; that’s what I’m passionate about.

I love old music, old movies, screwball comedies, vintage clothes and basically I’m an old-fashioned gal.

The older you get the more capable you get at managing life.

I’m blessed with a lot of energy and stamina. I can’t stand sitting still. I went to a spa once with my mom and I was like, “Get me out of here!'”

A little bit independent in your walk. A little bit independent in your talk. There’s nothing like you in Paris or New York. You’re awfully easy on the eyes.

I love funky styles. Not preppy or rock, just funky! Vanessa: (on her mom) She gave up so much for me. She moved many times so I could follow my career. Vanessa: I’ve always had problems with guys!

[being naked in his new role in Little Ashes] In a lot of ways, I was kind of crossing lines of what I thought I was comfortable doing. I had to do all this naked stuff.

Nothing is creepier than a bunch of adults being very quiet.

We’re still trying to break records on the twentieth anniversary of Live Aid. I’ve just heard Bob Geldof has put Phil Collins on a jet to Philadelphia. There’s nothing going on there, we just don’t want him around this year. No I’m joking, of course we didn’t put him on a jet. We stuck him in a catapult. To be fair, he didn’t get very far. Although it worked in rehearsals when we used it on Chris De Burgh. I could do a whole routine about injuring Phil f**king Collins.