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" 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. "

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" 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. "

Ry Cooder

Reputation

Music

Good

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I'm used to music as a tool, taking the various elements and then making something completely new out of them. And writing film music is the perfect opportunity to do that, because you can look at the film and then just let your imagination soar. "

" 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. "

" Nat King Cole - I listen to him a lot. "

" I just feel that music is a great life because it's very rewarding. It's a gratification. You do this for yourself, and you also do this for other people. "

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

" I wanted to be a car pinstriper, but there was nobody to teach me how to do it. So I said, 'Music's good too. I'll do that maybe, since I can't work out how to do this pinstriping.' "

" It's tremendously expensive to make a record on the basis of writing checks. "

" 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. "

" The thing I always found about the gospel music was that it reached further into your being if you like, your mind. It takes hold of you - especially if you sing it and play it. "

Ry Cooder

You

Always

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

Ry Cooder

Job

Problems

" You go through these phases. That's how life is. Over the long term, you just can't do one thing. I saw that back in the Sixties when I was getting started. "

" Who does this, at age 71, try to put a tour together from scratch? I have to say it's scary at times. But I like a challenge 'cause it keeps you on your toes. "

" To me, the essence of the music is the most important thing. "

Ry Cooder

The Most Important

Music

" 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. "

Ry Cooder

Over

Hard

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

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

" The blues is so expressive - nostalgic but not sentimental, mournful but not pathetic, so humble and close to the earth. It's a nuance-filled thing. "

Ry Cooder

Blues

Earth

" 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! "

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

Ry Cooder

Business

You

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

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

" 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. "

" It's crazy to make records nobody buys. It's just a waste of time. "

" Chavez Ravine is the dawn of Chicano consciousness. "

" 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. "