Dick Dale

I answer number one to myself, because I know myself. I answer to my fans, because they know me. My mother knows…

— Dick Dale

I used to surf up in Ventura County at Silver Strand; plus, I've played up there many times.

— Dick Dale

I blew amps like they were made of tissue paper. Once I blew out the sound system at Royal Albert Hall in…

— Dick Dale

As I'd go out learning to surf, I'd feel the power of waves coming over my body. It's like you're with God.

— Dick Dale

I'm going to make people happy. I'm going to make them forget about their cancer. I'm going to make them forget about…

— Dick Dale

Surfers were the ones who named all my songs. They'd yell out the names, and we just kept 'em.

— Dick Dale

I can play every instrument there is, every horn, I've played all the saxes and trumpets and everything and keyboards.

— Dick Dale

You shouldn't even be writing this story if you haven't heard me play live. You can't write with the passion you receive…

— Dick Dale

When I was 18 at the Santa Ana River Jetty is where I put my first board in the water that I…

— Dick Dale

Gene Krupa was my big hero, and I used to play on my mother's flour cans and sugar cans with the kitchen…

— Dick Dale

I smashed my tailbone and couldn't sit for five years, and I broke my clavicle because I thought I was a great…

— Dick Dale

What we perceive things to be when they come out of our mouth is not what the listener perceives it to be.…

— Dick Dale

That's what my music does for me. It makes people happy. When I play, I thank the Lord I've never seen someone…

— Dick Dale

What I play now isn't surf music. It's too powerful. I used to go through paper bags; now I go through brick…

— Dick Dale

I thought of Gene Krupa's drumming, his staccato drumming. I went and put 'Misirlou' to that rhythm.

— Dick Dale

I surfed Dana Point, San Clemente, and of course Huntington Beach. Every morning, you could find me at the hot water pipe.

— Dick Dale

I used to be a mean maniac. Someone once threw a firecracker at a show and I jumped off the side of…

— Dick Dale

When my guitar was growling, playing surf beat, you could hear it; you could feel it.

— Dick Dale

I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That's…

— Dick Dale

My philosophy is the thicker the wood the thicker the sound, the bigger the string the bigger the sound. My smallest string…

— Dick Dale

I like to say, 'I hit every type of music in a show, and I play the people, not the instruments.'

— Dick Dale

I'll just tell you the way it is. You ask me what time it is and I'm gonna tell you how to…

— Dick Dale

Jimi was a good guy 'til he got into drugs. That's the way it is. I just tell it like it is.

— Dick Dale

They're putting cement dust into cattle feed to make the cows heavier; the FDA knows all about it.

— Dick Dale

I wanted to put a sheet in explaining what all the songs are about, but they didn't do it.

— Dick Dale

There's a saying. If you want someone to love you forever, buy a dog, feed it and keep it around.

— Dick Dale

I don't play pyrotechnic scales. I play about frustration, patience, anger. Music is an extension of my soul.

— Dick Dale

You know, music is sex. It's a sensual driving mode that affects people if it's played a certain way.

— Dick Dale

Surf music is actually just the sound of the waves played on a guitar: that wet, splashy sound.

— Dick Dale

When I start playing I'm just a rollercoaster of sound. I don't know what's coming next, I never do, and I sit…

— Dick Dale