Sixto Rodriguez

I like language, words. And I think the survival skills I've developed over the years have added a lot to my perspective.

I don't necessarily want a higher education, I want a wider education. I want to know everything and experience everything.

I'm a worker, but I think that all workers get an idea of what to do to get free. Any kind of bondage, even economic bondage, is slavery.

That's the way I always listened to music. I'd listen and copy it. I play by ear so that's easier than reading.

My entry level has always been pretty high in the music business.

Education, information and knowledge are all one.

Whenever I speak, I talk to the collective consciousness of my audience.

There are beautiful songs people write about love and dancing. But it's political issues that should be addressed.

I have a formal education, but there's a whole lot you don't learn in school. And you only have so much time to figure it out. No matter how cerebral, celestial, how ethnic, there's a span of time here.

Music is a living art.

Some bands don't do covers. I love music. I've done the '40s, the '50s, 'the '60s, the '70s, the '80s, the '90s, the '00s, and I'm working on the '10s.

I've only written 30 songs or something. Dylan's written over 500 songs. There's no comparison. He's the Shakespeare of rock 'n' roll and popular music.

I used protest music as a vehicle.

I like Detroit.

I'm a family person, and you make those choices.

There's no shame in hard work.

I'm not a visual guy. I'm audio. I'm a musician. I know what I do. I play guitar, and in my category I'm doing O.K.

I was skeptical about the whole idea of my being in a film.

I'm lucky. It's okay that success has come later to me, because I might have burned up if it had happened earlier.

I'm a fortunate man, quite fortunate.

Musicians do music for the girls. We do music for the money. We do music for the recognition, for the rock and roll history. But we also do it because it's fun.

I loved the Woody Guthrie tradition of speaking about what's happening to the country.

I've been chasing music since I was 16.

I play guitar and I'm always trying to find out the latest kinds of riffs.

It took me 10 years to get a four-year degree, but I graduated.

My career, it's been a mess.

I've always covered some Dylan songs. I do one or two. And I do them because they're great songs. You know some people cover songs they wish they could have written, not me. I like to cover songs I know I could not have ever written.

I always had my guitar; I worked at writing some songs. I always played music - in the house. I sang to my daughters, I scribbled down some ideas. Actually I didn't always play music. I did leave it alone for some time too.

Music is not a spectator sport, you have to be involved - fully involved - or you get left behind.

You see there's music and there's the music business - and they're different.

I always like to say that you've got to... use all your talent.

If I sound political, it's because I am.

In the music business, there's a lot of criticism and rejection. If you embrace it, you'll be better off when the adjustment comes.

Voice is the first instrument.

I never left music, I just left the music scene.

I graduated from Wayne State University, but there's a whole lot you don't learn in school.

I know I did 'Establishment Blues,' and I said 'This is not a song it's an outburst' and I'd play it, I never did describe it as a rant - R-A-N-T - but the thing is it's exactly that. Sometimes it sounds like that, but there's a lot out there on the everyday man, on the plight of the little guy.

I'm born and bred out of Detroit. Detroit is an interesting place. You've got to be from somewhere.

There are no guarantees in the music field. There's a lot of rejection, a lot of criticism and a lot of disappointment. You have to be prepared for that. And after 1973, it just wasn't happening for me.

That late success has happened is OK. I'm grounded. I use my seniority to my advantage. That's helped me out. Who'd have thought? So, yeah. I'm a lucky guy.

I enjoy room service.

Barriers are being brought down by technology through the Internet.

The film, 'Searching For Sugar Man,' has excited my music career.

Every 20 years or so, I feel that young people confront the same issues - a new war, new challenges.

I learned that South Africa is a beautiful country with gorgeous people, and I got to see it from a different perspective than most people do.

I think that many of the issues they were facing in South Africa were the same as those I was singing about. Conscription, resisting the draft, government repression - I mentioned all those things in my songs.

There's no blueprint for success in rock'n'roll.

It's an honor and a pleasure to be heard.

I want to be mayor of the world. Don't give me too much money or too much power.

I don't like litter and blight.