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

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.

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

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.

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.