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" I didn't want tunes that preach heaven: you know, life on Earth is bad and heaven is the only hope we have. I don't quite care for that. I mean, when people sing that stuff, it's good when they do it, but I didn't want to do it. "

Ry Cooder

Hope

People

Heaven

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" Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking. "

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

" 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. "

" It all started back in '69 when I worked with Jack Nitzche on 'Performance.' That was my first experience of doing soundtracks, and I've enjoyed doing them ever since. "

" To me, the Internet is a big scam. "

Ry Cooder

Scam

Big

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

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Over

Hard

" 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

" That's what records do: represent a compressed, heightened version of the sound. Because of the compression of the tubes and microphones and the wax, it's magic! "

" You can play as good as you want, but you have to sing from a place of living. "

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

Ry Cooder

Great

Who

" 'Geronimo' was a huge amount of work. That involved 80-piece orchestras and Indians and Tuvans and all kinds of crazy people on that thing. That's a real circus, that score. "

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

" Being the front guy is a hard job. "

" 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 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. "

" I've tended to look at my albums as research and development. I was just trying to get someplace new on each one. "

" After all is said and done and institutions fail, people still have some ability to care for each other. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I give up on pop music. As far as a commercial entity, as far as pop music goes, I quit; I absolutely throw in the towel. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I can't be what they need you to be. "

" I'm a man of peace. "

Ry Cooder

Man

Peace

" 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. "

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

Ry Cooder

Job

Problems

" Chavez Ravine is the dawn of Chicano consciousness. "

" If you're taught to hate and fear a people or a country, and it works, it's because of your ignorance of that country. You have no contact with it, nor do you know what you're hating and fearing. "

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

Ry Cooder

Business

You

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

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

Ry Cooder

People

Playing

" 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

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