Ry Cooder Quotes

It's really weird watching the government watch me.

For me, it's better to live without looking over your shoulder, worrying about who is controlling your phone, maybe poisoning your food.

I'm always shy in front of an audience, so I'm always at the back, in the shadows, just doing it. I don't like the front, the adulation.

We do so much better when television isn’t watching.

I don't like the idea of people following me around.

People don't open up when there's a camera.

I think my worst nightmare is standing up in front of a group of people.

I'm not out there trying to get press for myself nor am I trying to convince anybody that I'm living any kind of a life. I'm actually trying to convince people: I don't want you to know what I'm living, because it's none of your business.

The reason I don't carry a mobile phone is I don't want people to know where I am!

There's always a sense that people will do things quite differently if they think they have privacy.

I don't live with earplugs. I don't like the spotlight - but I like overhearing conversations.

Big Brother doesn't like all these Little Brothers looking at it.

I don't like people cleaning my room.

I've auditioned for roles that involved voice, but I don't like it. I feel like, I can't do this in front of you. It seems so separate - I don't share it with a lot of people. And I'm not into public performances.

I don't like having people pick me out on the street. I don't like the status - good, bad or indifferent. I don't like it. I want my private life back, and I'm never going to have it.

I mean, if a camera's on you all the time, you don't get real moments.

We blush very, very easily, and we get terrified of audiences.

For me, I don't like it when there is too much interference in our lives. We're not children. It is our own life in our hands.

I take the invasion of my personal space very seriously.

I'm definitely bicoastal, but I have to say, it's easier to live in New York than in L.A. I feel like people respect other people's space a bit more here. Everyone has the right to that freedom, right? Everyone has that right. It's freezing in New York right now. In L.A., it's sunny. But I would choose freezing over being followed.

I still see myself on TV and think, 'Oh my God, I'm on a television, and there are millions of people watching,' and I get really nervous and embarrassed and insecure.

All persons have the right to privacy and to intimacy.

It's my private life, and it's not up for grabs.

Being anonymous is a great luxury. It's a big loss to lose that. Mostly, the loss is the ability to observe others without being observed yourself. And as an actor, that is your key tool.

Privacy is paradise.