All I know is, I play the guitar, beat it out, and sing a song that has some damn resonance that we… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
In oddball places, the electric guitar has been taken as an almost alien object - this weird, six-stringed instrument that fell down… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
The biggest inspiration I had was to take norteno soul music and fuse it with Mexican music. It was my great big… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
I wanted to be a car pinstriper, but there was nobody to teach me how to do it. So I said, 'Music's… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
I'm used to music as a tool, taking the various elements and then making something completely new out of them. And writing… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
I like classical music. I especially like the French composers: Ravel in particular. Debussy. That's so soothing in a nervous world. — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
There are those who make music and movies in a linear way: They plan them, they have a script. Of course, you… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
I can't help what people write or think. If somebody thinks I'm a serious archivist, they're wrong. That's been a problem. It's… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
R&B and all that stuff was always very spare and spontaneous. Nobody made those records under solid gold situations. It was just… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
These musicians, such as these Cubans in Havana, are a part of a scene that did produce great music and great musicians.… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
I got a reputation for being 'eclectic' or some damn thing like that, but to me, the different kinds of music I play are… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
The '50s was the golden age of music all over the world for some crazy, 'X-File'-like reason I can't quite understand. — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
I had a lot of luck in meeting great musicians who were kind enough to show me things. — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
You can play as good as you want, but you have to sing from a place of living. — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
I give up on pop music. As far as a commercial entity, as far as pop music goes, I quit; I absolutely throw in… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
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;… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
If you're white working with non-white people, you will be branded as a colonialist by some people, regardless of your efforts or intentions. — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
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… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
Music is a treasure hunt. You dig and dig, and sometimes you find something. — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
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… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
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… — Ry Cooder Copy Share Image
