Top 125 Quotes & Sayings by Ry Cooder - Page 2

To me, the essence of the music is the most important thing.

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.

It's good to see more young people playing instruments.

The story of American pop music is the story of failure. The blues, country music, it's not the story of success. People don't win; they lose.

I'm a great lover of ballads.

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

Back in the early '70s, when Susie and I were first married, we had a little house that we rented, and we used to have parties. People would come, and they wouldn't leave. I used to get so tired. I'd put on the Stanley Brothers, 'Songs for the Good People,' and the house would clear in five minutes. It was not liked; it was alien. It was weird.

I wanted to be a car pinstriper, but there was nobody to teach me how to do it. So I said, 'Music's good too. I'll do that maybe, since I can't work out how to do this pinstriping.'

I love listening to gospel records.

Promoters don't book you 'cause they like you; they do it 'cause there's good business to be done.

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

If it hadn't been for record people like Ralph Peer, the Chess brothers, and Alan Lomax, then life would've been unbelievably dull, and I would've been sacking groceries somewhere and probably, at this point, running a little 7-Eleven down by the airport.

'Buena Vista Social Club' is a great song and a difficult tune to play.

The ocean is very comfortable. I could never live inland.

I don't like being watched, and I don't like being an entertainer.

Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking.

The biggest inspiration I had was to take norteno soul music and fuse it with Mexican music. It was my great big idea to do that.

On any given day, if I play the guitar, I can put myself somewhere. I always thought, 'This is the way you go.' It's like a magic carpet, see?

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 like classical music. I especially like the French composers: Ravel in particular. Debussy. That's so soothing in a nervous world.

You have to be able to improvise and respond to what's going on around you. Then you might get a good piece of work done.

I always think you should push your envelope every chance you get.

I got a reputation for being 'eclectic' or some damn thing like that, but to me, the different kinds of music I play are all the same stuff - good time music - and it is the only stuff I can do.

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.

People who love the applause should have it, but I don't care for it.

Nat King Cole - I listen to him a lot.

I used to sneak gospel tunes into my old records, just as kind of a personal thing.

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

I had a lot of luck in meeting great musicians who were kind enough to show me things.

I always loved country gospel from back when I was a teenager in high school and started listening to bluegrass quite a lot.

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.

Sure, immigrants will do work that no-one else will do. There was even a movie about it - 'A Day Without Mexicans.'

It's crazy to make records nobody buys. It's just a waste of time.

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.

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

How many BMWs do you need? How many Rolex watches you gonna wear in your lifetime, for crying out loud? What is it about that kind of desire? I don't understand it.

Country hillbilly music I love. Always have.

Who does this, at age 71, try to put a tour together from scratch? I have to say it's scary at times. But I like a challenge 'cause it keeps you on your toes.

The Delmore Brothers is hit music - very, very popular - and it still retains that rural flavor and simplicity. I always think of it as family music, really, because families sang it.

I hate films. Films make me sick now, and if something makes me sick, I always back off.

Musicians are not so concerned with language.

You can make records from now 'til doomsday, and there are something like 50,000 records released every year, but the public gets to hear very few of these. They just won't know. They might be great records, but how in the world is the public supposed to find out about them?

Bad music can make you weak.

You have to be around people you trust; otherwise you can't do anything - you're afraid, you're paranoid, and you can't do any work.

Everything you do is challenging, hopefully, because if it's not, it's boring.

These musicians, such as these Cubans in Havana, are a part of a scene that did produce great music and great musicians. They came from this tradition, so it's a good place to look. It's like prospecting: You gotta know where to look.

Musicians communicate in other ways. That's just something you rely on.

Beautiful tunes are all very good and fine, and great musicians are always great, but that alone isn't enough.

The environment is rarely put on tape, or if it is, it's so abstract that most people never realize it. They just don't know what it means. But if you can show it to them, then that's what becomes the main instrument.

You're not born with certain skills; you have to acquire them.

Los Angeles is not Mexico City, but we have many fine nightclubs and restaurants here. It is enough. One must not aim too high.

There are those who make music and movies in a linear way: They plan them, they have a script. Of course, you have to have a script sometimes, but that alone isn't enough.

You should try to do something if you think you can see your way clear.

No second chances in the land of a thousand dances, the valley of ten million insanities.

All the money in the world is spent on feeling good.

Some things I like to do better than other things, but I've got to say that in the end, the thing that makes it the most interesting for me is who you're with, you know? It's people that make the difference in just about any field, right?

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. For a record to be memorable and great, it has to have something of this quality. Exactly what that is, I don't know, but I think it has something to do with an atmosphere, an environment that is appealing and attractive. And the people that inhabit this environment have... almost a message for the rest of the world.

Something has to happen between you and the public, some interface that lets the public in on what you're doing.

In oddball places, the electric guitar has been taken as an almost alien object - this weird, six-stringed instrument that fell down to earth and was then played loud but with traditional grace and intelligence

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.