A biography for Sixto Rodriguezhasn’t been written yet.
“There are beautiful songs people write about love and dancing. But it's political issues that should be addressed.”
“Was 'Crucify Your Mind' dedicated to anybody? No, it was a generalization. 'A Most Disgusting Song' is like that, too.”
“Some want to do pretty songs with pretty words about pretty people, but that ain't me.”
“Every 20 years or so, I feel that young people confront the same issues - a new war, new challenges.”
“In the music business, there's a lot of criticism and rejection. If you embrace it, you'll be better off when the adjustment comes.”
“I'm not an ascetic.”
“If I sound political, it's because I am.”
“I know I did 'Establishment Blues,' and I said 'This is not a song it's an outburst' and I'd play it, I never did describe it as a rant - R-A-N-T - but the thing is it's exactly that. Sometimes it sounds like that, but there's a lot out there on the everyday man, on the plight of the little guy.”
“I'm not a visual guy. I'm audio. I'm a musician. I know what I do. I play guitar, and in my category I'm doing O.K.”
“That late success has happened is OK. I'm grounded. I use my seniority to my advantage. That's helped me out. Who'd have thought? So, yeah. I'm a lucky guy.”
“I have a formal education, but there's a whole lot you don't learn in school. And you only have so much time to figure it out. No matter how cerebral, celestial, how ethnic, there's a span of time here.”
“Where other people live in an artificial world, I feel I live in the real world. And nothing beats reality.”
“You can't get around certain stuff, whether it's in Darfur or on your block at home. What makes us political is your home turf, your family, your life space. You walk down the street, and automatically a human being is territorial, and political happens in that.”
“I've only written 30 songs or something. Dylan's written over 500 songs. There's no comparison. He's the Shakespeare of rock 'n' roll and popular music.”
“I'm Mexican, and we do a lot of singing, and it was my brother's guitar that I'd practice on, and he would say, 'Who's that playing my guitar?'”
“Beware of current truths.”
“I graduated from Wayne State University, but there's a whole lot you don't learn in school.”
“You either live under a rock or you walk in the sunshine. That's pretty much how it goes.”
“I've always covered some Dylan songs. I do one or two. And I do them because they're great songs. You know some people cover songs they wish they could have written, not me. I like to cover songs I know I could not have ever written.”
“I was ready for the world. I don't think the world was ready for me.”