Ry Cooder

“I always have felt that most people don't have the first idea about what musicians, in the traditional sense - I don't mean in the modern media fake way, but traditionally - what they went through, what their lives were like.”

“Country hillbilly music I love. Always have.”

“I always thought East L.A. music was so dreamy and languid and kinda greasy.”

“The '50s was the golden age of music all over the world for some crazy, 'X-File'-like reason I can't quite understand.”

“I've done a fair amount of commercials. I did a bunch of Champion spark plug ads and Levi's and Molson Beer. You wouldn't know it. But some of it's damn good.”

“What kills music in films is when it's done as performance, drawing attention to the fact that someone's in the background playing it.”

“Music is a treasure hunt. You dig and dig, and sometimes you find something.”

“Santa Monica, where I have always lived, is not a town where you will find storefront Church of God in Christ churches. So, the whole idea of gospel quartet singing is something I never knew existed until I began to hear it on record.”

“I've tended to look at my albums as research and development. I was just trying to get someplace new on each one.”

“I love listening to gospel records.”

“Everyone thought my first album would be instrumental, but I didn't want to do it - it took me eight months to make.”

“I'm a great lover of ballads.”

“'Geronimo' was a huge amount of work. That involved 80-piece orchestras and Indians and Tuvans and all kinds of crazy people on that thing. That's a real circus, that score.”

“When I made the first album, I was 24, and at that age, you have nothing to say. I just played the music I loved and tried to do it justice.”

“I've listened to blues my whole life. I know it, I play it, I understand it.”

“I'm not interested in making folkloric records, but I like to push the traditional format around so that familiar patterns get knocked on the head.”

“Beautiful tunes are all very good and fine, and great musicians are always great, but that alone isn't enough. Most folks, when they see movies or hear records, need something that they find pulls them in, draws them in, and appeals to them beyond just the notes.”

“I just feel that music is a great life because it's very rewarding. It's a gratification. You do this for yourself, and you also do this for other people.”

“Critics don't sell records, unfortunately. No one reads what they write anyway.”

“Having my son on drums has made a huge difference. I can't stress this strongly enough, in terms of the groove space and style that Joachim gave me to instinctively play what I felt in a more free way, rather than feeling constricted. That's true on record and on stage.”