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" 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. "

Ry Cooder

Good People

People

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

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

" Some people have career plans, long-range career plans. I don't know anything about that. I'm no good at it. "

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

" The Woody Guthrie 'Dust Bowl' tunes were really fascinating. "

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

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

Ry Cooder

Sound

Need

" If every song is in the past tense, that's a drag, so you have to predict the future. "

" Having my son on drums has made a huge difference. I can't stress this strongly enough, in terms of the groove space and style that Joachim gave me to instinctively play what I felt in a more free way, rather than feeling constricted. That's true on record and on stage. "

Ry Cooder

Son

Free

" Film work is a job I like to do because I really love to solve problems. "

Ry Cooder

Job

Problems

" When I made the first album, I was 24, and at that age, you have nothing to say. I just played the music I loved and tried to do it justice. "

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

" I keep my mind on track, and I don't get mad, and I don't get frustrated. Well, I do... but creative work, it's a way of controlling all that. "

" I went on tour with Ricky Skaggs and his wife, Sharon White, and the White Family in 2015. It was fantastic. They're all the greatest singers of that country stuff, traditional country up into bluegrass. "

" I always thought East L.A. music was so dreamy and languid and kinda greasy. "

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

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

Ry Cooder

First

Everyone

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

" I've done a fair amount of commercials. I did a bunch of Champion spark plug ads and Levi's and Molson Beer. You wouldn't know it. But some of it's damn good. "

" Music is fragile: people die, and it's forgotten. "

" 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

Over

Hard

" American global economic imperialism is a fact. It's a known fact. It's a simple fact. "

" I like the idea that something happens to everybody who comes to L.A. - whether they are Mexican, Irish, black, or hillbillies. You come here, and you leave all your traditions behind. And since there's no traditions here, you just make one up. "

Ry Cooder

Mexican

Leave

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

" I toured around for years, but the road was always a drag for me. I never made a dime. In fact, I lost a lot of money - it was horrible. "

" I think all the music I do, which ties together, as far as I'm concerned, is fun and entertaining. "

" I'm a man of peace. "

Ry Cooder

Man

Peace

" 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. "

" I think I'm more relaxed; I think I'm more philosophical. I don't get worried as much as I used to about things. "