Ry Cooder

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I hate films. Films make me sick now, and if something makes me sick, I always back off.

I don't understand the public, but I do believe the public is oversold and underrated every day. Give the people something interesting, something to chew on, I say.

Politics runs on power and money and on ignorance.

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.

Being the front guy is a hard job.