I’ll just tell you the way it is. You ask me what time it is and I’m gonna tell you how to build a clock. – Dick Dale
I don’t live with the ‘right’ people. I don’t want to. I don’t want to live with the rich in Beverly Hills or walk the streets of Hollywood. I want to go to K-mart and get good deals. – Dick Dale
I’ve never taken a lesson in my life, and I can play every instrument there is. I play by ear, but I can fool anybody into thinking I went to some conservatory of music. – Dick Dale
As I’d go out learning to surf, I’d feel the power of waves coming over my body. It’s like you’re with God. – Dick Dale
Surf music is actually just the sound of the waves played on a guitar: that wet, splashy sound. – Dick Dale
You know, music is sex. It’s a sensual driving mode that affects people if it’s played a certain way. – Dick Dale
When I start playing I’m just a rollercoaster of sound. I don’t know what’s coming next, I never do, and I sit and sign and talk to the people afterwards. – Dick Dale
I told them if were going to do it were going to do it right, I’m not leaving ’til it’s done. My wife, child and I slept in the studio. We cut these raw. – Dick Dale
I surfed Dana Point, San Clemente, and of course Huntington Beach. Every morning, you could find me at the hot water pipe. – Dick Dale
When I started surfing, you’d hear this neat rumbling sound when you took off and go for the drop, and when the wave is lipping up over the top of you, it makes this hissing sound. – Dick Dale
Earthlings are confused, insecure. And some Earthlings have no heritage: that’s what leads them to kill each other and rob 7-11 stores. – Dick Dale
In the Shao Lin temple, they never allow you to touch the skin of a drum until you can tongue what you’re going to play. – Dick Dale
I always wanted a guitar. I always wanted to be a cowboy singer because I also listened to Hank Williams, and he would always sing these neat romantic songs. – Dick Dale
When I played with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in Vegas, the guys used to go, ‘Dick, cut it out, man! You’re moving around too much on this stage. You’re making us look bad!’ – Dick Dale
I answer number one to myself, because I know myself. I answer to my fans, because they know me. My mother knows me and God knows me, and that’s where it’s at. – Dick Dale
