Chet Atkins Quotes

Years from now, after I`m gone, someone will listen to what I`ve done and know I was here. They may not know or care who I was, but they`ll hear my guitars speaking for me.

I realized that what I liked, the public would like, too, `cause I`m kind of square.

Hank Garland was very outspoken and he had a lot of ideas. He didn`t take any talk from any producer. If they said something smart to him, his face would get real red and he`d say something back. But he was such a good musician that everyone had a terrible amount of respect for him, so nobody stepped on his toes. He could only help you: he was so good, he could never hurt you.

(on the first time he heard Hank Garland) I was in Knoxville, and I heard this chorus. I don`t recall the artist now, but I remember then that I thought it was the greatest guitar chorus I`d ever heard, so I checked around and found out it was Hank Garland who played it.

(on producing records with Jim Reeves, aka "Gentleman Jim", who joined RCA in 1955 after recording several years for Abbott Records) When I first met and started working with him, he was singing too high. He was a great baritone, but he wasn`t a very good tenor. I always tried to keep him down in a low key, because when he did that, he sounded wonderful to me. He knew I liked it when he sang in that low key, but occasionally he`d kid me a little and pitch it up a little too high.

A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can`t give you a formula for that.

If you hear something you like, and you`re halfway like the public, chances are they`ll like it too.

Once you become predictable, no one`s interested anymore.

You shape your own destiny.

I`ll always be poor in my mind.

Do it again on the next verse, and people think you meant it.

Everything I`ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.