Ry Cooder

People respond to any good you can do in music.

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

Musicians are not so concerned with language.

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

Country hillbilly music I love. Always have.

— Ry Cooder

Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking.

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

The story of American pop music is the story of failure. The blues, country music, it's not the story of success. People…

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

If you can't get yourself understood, you may have trouble, so you need some interpretation every now and again wherever you might…

— Ry Cooder

I toured around for years, but the road was always a drag for me. I never made a dime. In fact, I…

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

I'm not interested in making folkloric records, but I like to push the traditional format around so that familiar patterns get knocked…

— Ry Cooder

On any given day, if I play the guitar, I can put myself somewhere. I always thought, 'This is the way you…

— Ry Cooder

Having my son on drums has made a huge difference. I can't stress this strongly enough, in terms of the groove space…

— Ry Cooder

I like the idea that something happens to everybody who comes to L.A. - whether they are Mexican, Irish, black, or hillbillies.…

— Ry Cooder

You can make records from now 'til doomsday, and there are something like 50,000 records released every year, but the public gets…

— Ry Cooder

A microphone has a certain range. It's not as good as your ears, but it will capture an enclosed space, the harmonic…

— Ry Cooder

How many BMWs do you need? How many Rolex watches you gonna wear in your lifetime, for crying out loud? What is…

— Ry Cooder

'Geronimo' was a huge amount of work. That involved 80-piece orchestras and Indians and Tuvans and all kinds of crazy people on…

— Ry Cooder

It all started back in '69 when I worked with Jack Nitzche on 'Performance.' That was my first experience of doing soundtracks,…

— Ry Cooder

Once you feel that you've learned some skills and you know how to make records, the next thing is, "Do we ever…

— Ry Cooder

Needless to say, you've got to have someone who can speak for you.

— Ry Cooder

Nat King Cole - I listen to him a lot.

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

Travelling is hard. I'm no traveller. I hate flying, and I hate hotels.

— Ry Cooder

When the real world intrudes on your musical fantasies, I get put out.

— Ry Cooder

What kills music in films is when it's done as performance, drawing attention to the fact that someone's in the background playing…

— Ry Cooder

With country, it's hard to penetrate the thick layers of commercialism that have been applied like shellac coatings over the real thing.

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

Music is a treasure hunt. You dig and dig, and sometimes you find something.

— Ry Cooder

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

— Ry Cooder

I've listened to blues my whole life. I know it, I play it, I understand it.

— Ry Cooder

I didn't come from a very rigid background, where there's a clan or a tribe or a religion.

— Ry Cooder

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