Ry Cooder Quotes

It would be awesome to stay popular, but if I was only an underground artist, I would be okay with that.

I try to make the songs as good as I can - the way I like it, you know? And I guess my taste sometimes happens to be what other people, particularly radio programmers, like too.

I just want to make music people like.

At the end of the day, all I want is that my films should do well.

I always assume that nothing that I make is going to be a success, that everything I make is going to be a failure - not a failure but not some huge box- office success. If something is an artistic success, I'll be happy, but I'll maybe be the only person that's happy.

You do the work and you want people to see it; but, um while I'm doing the work, the result doesn't matter at all to me. Ultimately, I don't, I don't care whether the film is - you know - some big giant box-office bonanza and I don't care if its a complete flop. To me, when a film gets made and it's actually finished it's a success. They're all a success in their own way.

I'm always working on my own music, too. I've been working on a record for a few years.

When we're putting out records that people are responding to, it's amazing. And it's obviously what we shoot for every time. It's a tricky balancing act. But as long as it's sort of a righteous idea, then you're good to go.

All I have to do to continue to make things work is make great records, and that's more important than having a crazy master plan.

Fortunately, the music from the first record really connected with people, and I was really proud of that.

In the '80s, it was difficult and frustrating to appear in the theater and TV again, even though I had some successful shows and hit records. Now, I have to say, the '90s are the best decade of my life. I've done the best work and, in a funny way, I'm enjoying the most success... more than in the '70s.

If you're thinking about making a hit song, and you think I want everybody in the world to love it, then you kind of make it up, and you do it.

I just want to make good music, and as long as I'm happy with it, the charting isn't that important to me. Although, the best feeling is having a song you're very happy with and also having it at Number One!

I think a lot of the fun of making records, for me, is making each one of them a situation. For example, with 'Ghost,' I found a group of people that had an energy together, and we kind of did it in a cabin somewhere.

When you finish a song, your first thought is going to be, 'Is this song a hit?' I hate that we think that way, because it kind of takes a little bit of the meaning out of the songs that are being written, but you're definitely going to think, 'Can this song be put on the radio?'

As films are a mass medium, if more people love your work, it is better.

I don't care about how many records I sell, but the main thing is people like it.

I don't really think about the box office, but I want my films to do well.

There's a point with every record we've made that the album starts to assert its identity, and I think that's kind of what happened with 'The Wolf.'

I want to have hit records, but I'm not searching to say, 'All right, I need this to be in the club. I need this, that.' I'm just making quality music.

The way I made 'Diamonds and Dirt,' which had all those hits in a row, was that I was just making a record. It was just the one that rolled up in my natural process, and it happened to be commercial.

I tried hard not to think about the scope or scale of making a record that would be heard by millions and millions of people. I did a pretty good job of tuning that out.

A lot of my friends who I wrote or produced songs for came back and helped me make 'Pages.' It's better than I ever could have imagined.

I don't really feel like you're making a record unless you pay attention to it.

I just want to make good music that, you know, appeals to all people, man. I want to branch out and you know just have a lot of multiplatinum albums.