People respond to any good you can do in music.

Music is all starting to sound alike in the modern era. Afro-pop sounds exactly like L.A. pop - there's no difference, no ambience, no real resonance.

That's what records do: represent a compressed, heightened version of the sound. Because of the compression of the tubes and microphones and the wax, it's magic!

I didn't want tunes that preach heaven: you know, life on Earth is bad and heaven is the only hope we have. I don't quite care for that. I mean, when people sing that stuff, it's good when they do it, but I didn't want to do it.

It's crazy to make records nobody buys. It's just a waste of time.

A microphone has a certain range. It's not as good as your ears, but it will capture an enclosed space, the harmonic content in a room. Nice old tube mikes do that pretty well. And that's a good sound.

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

Music is a treasure hunt. You dig and dig, and sometimes you find something.

You can play as good as you want, but you have to sing from a place of living.

I had a lot of luck in meeting great musicians who were kind enough to show me things.

The biggest inspiration I had was to take norteno soul music and fuse it with Mexican music. It was my great big idea to do that.

After all is said and done and institutions fail, people still have some ability to care for each other.

Travelling is hard. I'm no traveller. I hate flying, and I hate hotels.

The thing I always found about the gospel music was that it reached further into your being if you like, your mind. It takes hold of you - especially if you sing it and play it.

Musicians understand each other through means other that speaking.

I'm sort of an osmotic fellow.

Everyone thought my first album would be instrumental, but I didn't want to do it - it took me eight months to make.

I always think you should push your envelope every chance you get.

Nat King Cole - I listen to him a lot.

Promoters don't book you 'cause they like you; they do it 'cause there's good business to be done.

R&B and all that stuff was always very spare and spontaneous. Nobody made those records under solid gold situations. It was just in and out, and you didn't labor over the thing. I like music like that.

With country, it's hard to penetrate the thick layers of commercialism that have been applied like shellac coatings over the real thing.

The ocean is very comfortable. I could never live inland.

I love listening to gospel records.

I give up on pop music. As far as a commercial entity, as far as pop music goes, I quit; I absolutely throw in the towel. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I can't be what they need you to be.

I've tended to look at my albums as research and development. I was just trying to get someplace new on each one.

All I know is, I play the guitar, beat it out, and sing a song that has some damn resonance that we feel as musicians. We send it out and people get it, and that's a good thing.

People who get together, regardless of other structures, will find something in common. They are bound to. That was the Pete Seeger let's-all-sing theory.

If you're white working with non-white people, you will be branded as a colonialist by some people, regardless of your efforts or intentions.

Chavez Ravine is the dawn of Chicano consciousness.

People who aren't as interested in recorded music as they used to be will say, 'Oh, 'Buena Vista?' Loved it.' And I'll say, 'Well, how about any of my other recent records. I've been doing some pretty good ones. You like those?' And they go, 'Huh?'

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 don't like being watched, and I don't like being an entertainer.

Music is fragile: people die, and it's forgotten.

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

They used to have selection days for all the local kids and I went to these trials three times and got turned down every time. On the third time I was so upset because I thought I was not good enough. I was eight years old and I had the feeling, 'That's it, I don't want to play for Ajax any more!'

I'm not the type of player who gives up.

To be a supersub is mentally hard.

To be underestimated is my biggest motivation.

It is clear I have enough qualities to be in the starting XI of Liverpool. But when you never get a real chance, it's difficult.

English fans and the English atmospheres are special.

As far as I can judge, English football is not for everybody. You need to have the lungs for it, you need to have the strength for it.

I liked mostly to play football on the ground and have a little bit of playing tactics rather than just up and down, long balls and second balls. That's not really my game.

If there isn't a team that plays my type of game I don't think I could make a big difference. I have to be realistic.

In Holland, you can step into the manager's office and ask him for clarity if you don't know why you're not playing and they are open with you.

I definitely made the wrong choices. I left Holland too early, I probably should've stayed one more year for my development, but these things happen.

Turkish people are very emotional, very passionate about football, really want to see their team do well.

For a 20 year old the gap from Holland to England is massive. That's a fact. Not all players are able to settle in directly from day one. I remember even Van Persie needed two, three years but he became Van Persie.

I was only used to 4-3-3. For me as a left-winger you have also a left midfielder and a left-back behind you. But in a 4-4-2 you are basically also the left midfielder so you have to help more in defence and I wasn't used to that.

I came from Ajax where you play 4-3-3 and as a winger they didn't want you to defend.