Ry Cooder

“I'm a man of peace.”

“American global economic imperialism is a fact. It's a known fact. It's a simple fact.”

“I've been wanting an ice cream truck forever.”

“I like the idea that something happens to everybody who comes to L.A. - whether they are Mexican, Irish, black, or hillbillies. You come here, and you leave all your traditions behind. And since there's no traditions here, you just make one up.”

“You can play as good as you want, but you have to sing from a place of living.”

“A microphone has a certain range. It's not as good as your ears, but it will capture an enclosed space, the harmonic content in a room. Nice old tube mikes do that pretty well. And that's a good sound.”

“Film work is a job I like to do because I really love to solve problems.”

“Music is fragile: people die, and it's forgotten.”

“I didn't want tunes that preach heaven: you know, life on Earth is bad and heaven is the only hope we have. I don't quite care for that. I mean, when people sing that stuff, it's good when they do it, but I didn't want to do it.”

“I'm sort of an osmotic fellow.”

“The world will always love Cuban music, however it changes.”

“I think all the music I do, which ties together, as far as I'm concerned, is fun and entertaining.”

“If something grooves and you like the sound, then that's all you need.”

“After all is said and done and institutions fail, people still have some ability to care for each other.”

“People who get together, regardless of other structures, will find something in common. They are bound to. That was the Pete Seeger let's-all-sing theory.”

“Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking.”

“Music is all starting to sound alike in the modern era. Afro-pop sounds exactly like L.A. pop - there's no difference, no ambience, no real resonance.”

“People respond to any good you can do in music.”

“If every song is in the past tense, that's a drag, so you have to predict the future.”

“I toured around for years, but the road was always a drag for me. I never made a dime. In fact, I lost a lot of money - it was horrible.”