“I've listened to blues my whole life. I know it, I play it, I understa...” — Ry Cooder Quote

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

“On any given day, if I play the guitar, I can put myself somewhere. I always thought, 'This is the way you go.' It's like a magic carpet, see?”

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

“People all over the world have problems. And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.”

“My template for most songs is 'Is this inspiring?' and with the blues it so often is.”

“Elvis might have compromised his musical style a bit towards the end, but that doesn't mean that artists from the rock n' roll/folk-roots culture - of which he was not really a part - shouldn't get better as they get older, like the great jazz or blues artists.”